I am currently 55 years of age . I have worked for the railroad and have 16 years of service. If I leave the railroad industry and take another job and retire at 62 , will I receive both railroad retirement and social security?

Hi,

You can potentially collect both Social Security (SS) and Railroad Retirement (RR) benefits, but if you're entitled to both benefits at the same time then the Railroad Retirement Board (RRB) will offset your Tier 1 RR benefits dollar for dollar by the amount of your SS benefit. In other words, if you're eligible for both SS & RR benefits and if you file for both, what you'll receive is the higher of a) your SS benefit rate, or b) your Tier 1 RR benefit rate, plus c) your Tier 2 RR benefits.

In order to qualify for Social Security retirement benefits you need to have at least 40 quarters of coverage, which is roughly the equivalent of 10 years of Social Security covered earnings. Our software (https://maximizemysocialsecurity.com/purchase) can help you determine how much you could expect to receive from Social Security, but the software is not programmed for Railroad Retirement benefits.

Best, Jerry