Reply to thread

Message: [QUOTE="twiceahusky, post: 4849713, member: 7126"] WEP ... my teachers union blasted that in an email, asking us to call up and complain that it is stealing earned retirement funds from retirees. I've researched it a bit as I'm that guy who is getting punished by WEP ... I had a private career for about 13 years before teaching and my SS payments will get reduced. So I researched WEP, and in concept, it appears to be fair (I haven't been able to study the actual formula to determine if it is perfectly fair in practice). How a career like mine actually games the system without WEP ... SS pays you for your highest 35 earning years. Essentially paying low earners a high percent of their pay back in SS benefits, and a much lower percent for folks earning more $$ ... it is a safety net for low earners I think. The formula give 90% of your first low income band of earning, 32% for the second, and 15% for the highest income band. If you only worked 10 years paying into SS, they divide your earned amount by 35 years and it appears that you were a low income earner, and you receive MUCH higher benefits per $$ earned. WEP tries to correct that. That's the best that I can do to explain, but in my opinion, paying teachers full SS benefits (without WEP reductions) is overpaying, and therefore taking from the remaining retirees. I hope they repeal WEP so I can get more and live large ... but it might not be fair! [/QUOTE]