Will WEP reduce my Social Security by exactly $587 from my $1720 FRA estimate?

thats not exactly how it works. WEP is complicated!! the max reduction is $587 but thats only if you have like zero years of substantial earnings under SS. since you said you worked 22 yrs under SS you probably wont get hit with the full reduction. it depends on how many of those years meet the 'substantial earnings' threshold which changes every yr

The calculation is more nuanced than simply subtracting $587 from your estimate. Here's how it works: 1. First, SSA uses a modified formula to calculate your Primary Insurance Amount (PIA) when WEP applies 2. The maximum reduction for 2025 is indeed $587, but it's reduced by about $29.35 for each year of substantial earnings you have over 20 years 3. If you truly have 22 years of substantial earnings under Social Security, your WEP reduction would be approximately $528 (not the full $587) 4. 'Substantial earnings' for 2025 means you earned at least $30,975 in those years (the threshold was lower in previous years) You should create a my Social Security account online and check your earnings record to verify your years of substantial earnings. The estimate you see doesn't account for WEP, so you'll need to manually adjust.

You should also know that if you've worked exactly 20 years with substantial earnings under Social Security, your WEP reduction would be 90% of that maximum. At 21 years, it drops to 85%, 22 years drops to 80%, and so on until 30+ years where WEP doesn't apply at all. Also, the statement estimate of $1720 already assumes you'll continue working at your current salary until your FRA. If you're retiring earlier, the actual base amount before WEP might be lower than $1720. The WEP calculation modifies the first bend point in the PIA formula from 90% to as low as 40% depending on your years of coverage.

call SSA and ask for a WEP calculation!!! thats what i did. waited 4 hours but they did it right there on the phone. better than guessing

I spent 3 MONTHS trying to get someone at SSA to give me an accurate WEP calculation! Every time I called, I got different answers. One rep told me WEP wouldn't apply to me at all (wrong), another said I'd lose over $600 (also wrong). Finally got a senior rep who knew what they were talking about. My advice: DON'T trust the first answer you get!!

I recently went through this exact same situation with figuring out my WEP reduction. Getting through to Social Security was impossible - constant busy signals, disconnections, and 3+ hour wait times. I finally used a service called Claimyr (claimyr.com) that got me connected to a real SSA agent in about 15 minutes. They have a video showing how it works: https://youtu.be/Z-BRbJw3puU. The agent was able to calculate my exact WEP reduction based on my earnings record and pension amount. Turns out my reduction was $267 less than I thought it would be because some of my part-time years still qualified as substantial earnings under the older thresholds. Definitely worth getting the official calculation instead of guessing.

They needed my Social Security number, of course, plus information about my non-covered pension (annual amount and when it started). The agent also reviewed my earnings record with me to count my years of substantial earnings. Make sure you know your pension amount when you call!

One more important point: if your actual earnings record shows you have 19 years of substantial earnings (not 20+ as you initially thought), then yes, you would be subject to the maximum WEP reduction. However, if you're still working in covered employment this year, you could potentially earn enough to meet the substantial earnings threshold for 2025 ($30,975), which would give you your 20th year and reduce your WEP penalty. Each year of substantial earnings over 20 reduces your WEP penalty by 5% of the maximum. So going from 19 to 20 years would reduce your penalty from $587 to about $528.

Definitely try to get that 20th year if you can! And remember that WEP only applies to the retirement benefit based on your own record. If you're eligible for spousal benefits or survivor benefits based on someone else's record, those aren't affected by WEP (though they might be affected by GPO - Government Pension Offset - which is different).

@casual_commenter - No, the Social Security Statement estimates do NOT automatically factor in WEP. The statement explicitly says this in the fine print. The only way to get an accurate WEP calculation is to contact SSA directly. Online estimates don't have access to information about non-covered pensions, which is necessary to calculate WEP.