I may be a day late and a dollar short, but this has been chewing at me ever since I found about the Windfall Elimination Provision (WEP). I had to retire from law enforcement due to an on the job injury in 1995. Even after 20 years on the job, I am lucky to be bringing in 50% of what I was making at that time. But, before and after my law enforcement career, I put in 25 years in the private sector. I'm not able to work now due to the economy (that's what I'm blaming) so I may have to start drawing Social Security at 62. Here's what gets to me. I will only be given about half of the benefits I should be receiving. WEP mandates that ONLY public pensioners who did not contribute while employed by a public entity can only receive a portion of their benefits, even though they worked the same number of years as a contributor as any other pensioner. Same number of years worked, smaller benefits. A retired union worker gets a pension and social security. A cop retired because of an injury gets less. I don't think this will ever make sense.
Posted by johndoucette