My government pension will cancel out my SS benefit.. Will I get reimbursed what I paid into social security since I will not receive any benefits? And if not, how is that legal? I worked 10 years paying into SS and when I retire, I will have paid 30 years into pension. How do I just lose 10 years of retirement benefits? I can’t even understand how it’s legal to reduce it. Thank you, Sheila

Hi Sheila,

Social Security taxes are just that, a tax. As such, they are not optional and you can't request a refund of the taxes that you've paid. Furthermore, there's no guarantee when you pay Social Security taxes that you will eventually qualify for benefits. All of that is legal based on the Social Security law initially passed by Congress in 1935.

More importantly, though, I think you may be mistaken about your pension cancelling out your Social Security. If you have at least 40 quarters (i.e. 10 years) of Social Security coverage then you would qualify for Social Security retirement benefits as early as age 62 regardless of any other pensions that you may receive. It sounds like your retirement benefit rate may be lower than normal due to the Windfall Elimination Provision (WEP), but WEP never causes a person's benefit rate to be reduced to zero (https://www.ssa.gov/planners/retire/wep.html).

You may want to consider using our maximization software to explore your options with regard to Social Security benefits.

Best, Jerry