I was an adjunct professor at a community college for 7 years while concurrently working part time as an apartment manager for low income families (for 15 years). Both jobs were low paying, and I needed both to make ends meet and pay rent in Los Angeles. I am still in my early 40s and unemployed due to the pandemic. I am reassessing my career and thinking about changing. How can I avoid or at least minimize the wep deduction to my retirement. I haven't earned much in the way of retirement anyway, so reducing my benefit simply because I taught a class each semester for 7 years is disheartening. What are my options to maximize the benefits I earned?

Hi. The Windfall Elimination Provision (WEP) doesn't apply unless and until a person starts receiving both a) a pension that's based on their work and earnings that weren't subject to Social Security taxes, and b) either Social Security retirement or disability (SSDI) benefits. So, you could delay or avoid WEP by either delaying receipt of your non-covered pension or by not taking it at all. However, that may not be advantageous depending on the details involved.

Withdrawals of an employee's own contributions and interest are not considered as pensions for WEP purposes if the employee forfeits all rights to the pension and if the withdrawal is made before the employee is eligible to receive a pension. So, you could potentially do that, but again that may not be advantageous overall.

Another possible way to avoid WEP is to have at least 30 years of Social Security covered earnings that are high enough to count as a year of coverage (YOC) according to WEP guidelines (https://secure.ssa.gov/apps10/poms.nsf/lnx/0300605362). Our software (https://maximizemysocialsecurity.com/purchase) is fully programmed to handle Social Security benefit calculations involving WEP, so you may want to strongly consider using the software to help you with your planning.

Best, Jerry