Think long-term!
Presentations
CalSTRS and Social Security
Repealing the WEP and GPO
Teaching After Retiring
Presentations
May 2024 Zoom on retirement
January 2022 Flex Event focusing on retirement
more videos on the SDAFA YouTube channel
CalSTRS and Social Security
| CalSTRS | Social Security | |
|---|---|---|
| Are you a member? | You had to have joined. Defined Benefit – Pension Cash Balance – Fixed amount | Did you work for an employer that deducted from your pay for Social Security or FICA? (Medicare does not count) |
| Minimum Requirement? | 5 years of earned credit | 10 years or 40 quarters |
| How much will your retirement benefit be? | Based on a formula taking into consideration your earned credit years, earnings, age when you retire | Based on earnings history under Social Security and your age when you retire |
| First step to know YOUR reality | Create a myCalSTRS account | Set up a secure online “My Social Security” account |
| Where? | Go to the myCalSTRS account at www.calstrs.com | To create an account, go to www.socialsecurity.gov/myaccount. |
| Earliest age for retirement | You can retire at age 55 with at least five years of service credit | 62 but it may change |
| Age for full retirement | Depends on what you consider full retirement | 66 if born 1943 – 1954, then gradually older |
| Delaying retirement? | Increases benefits since you are acquiring more earned credit, but ony to age 70. | Increases benefits 8% per year up to age 70, then no more increases. |
| Can you work and receive benefits? | Yes – you have to wait 180 days and retirees are limited to a workload that was 60% FTE and now is a dollar amount of approx. $42K | Yes, and if you have reached full retirement age, there will be no reduction in benefits. |
| WEP – Windfall Elimination Provision | Pensions from work not covered by Social Security: If you get a pension from work for which you paid Social Security taxes, that pension won’t affect your Social Security benefits. However, if you get a pension from work not covered by Social Security — for example, CalSTRS — they may reduce your Social Security benefit. | |
| Will my monthly benefit be reduced? | No – CalSTRS will not be affected | Possibly based on how many years of “significant Social Security earnings” you have had. |
| GPO – Governmental Pension Offset | You are married to someone that is collecting from Social Security and the two of you want you to be able to collect as a spouse under Social Security. If you get a pension from work not covered by Social Security — for example, CalSTRS — this will eliminate the possiblity that you can collect as a spouse under your Social Security. | |
| Will my monthly benefit be reduced? | No | You will not be able to collect Social Security as a spouse. |
| More information? | www.calstrs.com | www.ssa.gov |
| Medicare | You have paid into it | Sign up for it at age 65 even if you are still working and covered by employer insurance. |
| Myth: I will get benefits under CalSTRS, therefore I cannot get any Social Security. | Depends on how many years you worked under Social Security and how much you made each of those years. You might be right but you might get 50% of your Social Security and you might get 100% of it. |
Here is all the information you need to know about retiring under CalSTRS and also Social Security:
- Adjuncts: CalSTRS and Social Security –
How do these two systems work for the Adjunct that wants to retire?
- Are you considering retiring from CalSTRS?
Here are the steps you need to take at SDCCD
- Retirement and the STRS 180 Day Rule
- Now that they have retired from CalSTRS, some retired Adjuncts have given us feedback
Learn from their experience.
- Social Security Checklist for Adjuncts
- Adjuncts CalSTRS and Social Security
Here is an Excel chart comparing Retirement under CalStrs and Social Security
- Did you pay into Social Security at some time?
- Will you be able to collect
anything under Social Security?
Hopefully this checklist will help you find the answer. I also have it posted under Files in the San Diego Adjunct Faculy page on Facebook
Note: Prepared for SDAFA by Carlynne Allbee, in the spirit of “Adjuncts helping Adjuncts.”
Please refer to the Social Security Administration Guidelines for further information about your SSA Retirement questions.
Social Security Checklist for Adjuncts
- Two websites
you should be using or be aware of for Social Security and WEP- https://www.ssa.gov/
Social Security Administration - http://www.ssfairness.com/
Social Security Fairness – An organization working to repeal the WEP and
the GPO.
- https://www.ssa.gov/
- Basic eligibility for Social
Security:- When you
work and pay Social Security taxes, you earn “credits” toward Social Security benefits. - If you were born in 1929 or later,
you need 40 credits (10 years of work). - If you stop working before you have
enough credits to qualify for benefits, the credits will remain on your Social
Security record. If you return to work later, you can add more credits to
qualify. - SSA can’t pay any retirement
benefits until you have the required number of credits. - The amount of earnings required for a
quarter of coverage (QC) in 2017 is $1,300.
There is a chart for each year if
you need it at https://www.ssa.gov/OACT/COLA/QC.html- $1,300
/ 3 = $434 per month or - $1300/13
= $100 per week.
- $1,300
- The quarters do NOT need to be
consecutive.
- When you
- If you have not already done so, you
need to set up a “My Account” at https://www.ssa.gov/myaccount/- Take the time to explore My Account
to find out all of the information that is available to you concerning your
existence in Social Security. - Passwords expire after 6 months but are
easy to update - Can you tell how many quarters credit
they show for you?
- Take the time to explore My Account
- In My Account, click on Earnings Record. This shows the history of your earnings over
your professional life.- Taxed Social Security Earnings is the
one we need to determine whether we are subject to WEP or not. - The other column, Taxed Medicare
Earnings includes the pay we earned as teachers under our retirement systems
such as STRS. - You will be copying and pasting the
information in the Taxed Social Security Earnings on the chart we are going to
prepare to look for Substantial Social Security Earnings.
- Taxed Social Security Earnings is the
- Windfall Elimination Provision – WEP, per SSA:
“The Windfall Elimination Provision
can affect how we calculate your retirement or disability benefit. If you work
for an employer who doesn’t withhold Social Security taxes from your salary,
such as a (community college district), any pension you get from that work can
reduce your Social Security benefits. The
Windfall Elimination Provision doesn’t apply if:- You
have 30 or more years of substantial earnings under Social Security. - The Windfall Elimination Provision may
possibly not apply to survivors benefits. However, SSA may reduce widows or
widowers benefits because of another law. For more information, read Government
Pension Offset (Publication No.
05-10007). - The
law protects you if you get a low pension. We won’t reduce your Social Security
benefit more than half of your pension for earnings after 1956 on which you
didn’t pay Social Security taxes. (Caution:
Some adjuncts have found that their STRS retirement is high enough and
Social Security is low enough that it does eliminate their Social Security
Benefit. However – contact SSA. Do not automatically assume this is true. - If you are divorced, but your marriage lasted 10 years
or longer, you can receive benefits on your ex-spouse’s record (even if he or
she has remarried) as long as you have not remarried. This is still subject to WEP as are spousal
benefits.
- You
- Creating the charts – this is what couple of us have
done.- Open an Excel Worksheet.
- Copy the chart from either the Facebook page for San Diego Adjunct
Faculty Association under files, or from the second page of https://www.ssa.gov/pubs/EN-05-10045.pdf. The chart from SSA has some years combined. The one on SDAFA’s Facebook page has these
years separated. - Save it to your computer and enable editing if you are using the one from
the Facebook page (or send me an email at CarlynneAllbee@yahoo.com and
I will send you the Excel sheet)
| Social Security Windfall Earnings Calculation Chart | ||||||
| Working Year | Year | Substantial earnings | My Social Security earnings. | My Taxed Medcare Earnings | Percentage of Soc Sec Substantial Earnings? | Year of Substantial Earnings |
| 1 | 1968 | $1,950 | $ 3,082 | $ 3,082 | 158% | 1 |
| 2 | 1969 | $1,950 | $ 4,229 | $ 4,229 | 217% | 2 |
- This is a sample of what is in
Facebook on the SDAFA page- Go back to MyAccount in the SSA website and access the My Earnings
Record. - Fill in the information from SSA onto the Excel chart. (You
don’t really need the My Medicare Earnings.
I posted it on mine just out of curiosity) - As you enter the earnings information, the chart should do the math for
you and update the column “Percentage of Soc Sec Substantial Earnings?” - Now, using the next column “Year of Substantial Earnings” Start numbering
the years where you made 100% or more.
1, 2, 3 etc. - If you reach the magic 30, then you are not subject to WEP. This could happen because:
- As you taught as an Adjunct, you also worked in industry
- You
also were teaching at a school, such as USD that did pay into Social Security.
- Go back to MyAccount in the SSA website and access the My Earnings
If you are really close to the 30, you might want to consider finding a second job that will pay into Social Security the amount you need for that year. This is a decision that is totally based on your own situation Be aware of the possibility.
- How much will your Social Security Benefits be reduced under WEP?
- https://www.ssa.gov/pubs/EN-05-10045.pdf has a second chart that shows what
percentage will be used to reduce the benefits based on how many years
substantial earnings you do have.
- https://www.ssa.gov/pubs/EN-05-10045.pdf has a second chart that shows what
- Per the SSA publication: “The law protects you if you get a low pension. We won’t reduce your Social Security benefit more than half of your pension for earnings after 1956 on which you didn’t pay Social Security taxes.” For many Adjuncts, half of their STRS pension will be more than their calculated Social Security benefit.
- When in doubt – Contact Social Security and ask them AFTER you do your homework, including preparing this chart.
- Visit www.socialsecurity.gov anytime to get answers to frequently asked questions.
- Or, call us toll-free at 1-800-772-1213 (for the deaf or hard of hearing, call our TTY number, 1-800-325-0778
- We can answer case-specific questions from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m., Monday through Friday. Generally, you’ll have a shorter wait time if you call after Tuesday
- Chart from Social Security Administration: You will have to get this from our Facebook page under Files or from the Social Security website. I could not get it to load.
- From
Social Security Fairness: http://www.ssfairness.com/calculate-your-offset/- If you are applying for your own Social Security benefits: The Windfall Elimination Provision (WEP) affects members who
apply for their own (not spousal) Social Security benefits. If you do not have
30 years of Social Security covered work, a Social Security WEP Calculator can
assist you to calculate the complex formula that will tell you your benefit
amount. (See the chart above.) - If you are applying for Social Security Benefits as a
spouse, a divorced spouse or widow/widower: The Government Pension Offset
affects individuals who apply for Social Security spousal benefits. The amount
of their spousal benefits will be reduced by two-thirds of their government
pension. Learn more about GPO from
the Social Security Administration’s website.
- If you are applying for your own Social Security benefits: The Windfall Elimination Provision (WEP) affects members who
- Reminder: It does not cost anything to apply for Social
Security. It is worth a try even if the
amount you will receive will be small. I look at it from this point of view: Will it give me enough money to pay one of my
monthly bills?
Repealing the WEP and GPO
SDAFA has joined several campaigns and meets regularly with local lawmakers. Please join SDAFA! Your membership helps! If your are directly effected by the WEP or GPO please share your story.
For more information, one of the best resources is the California Retired Teachers Association:
SDCCD Teaching after Retirement
Retiring? Steps you need to take
Yes – you can retire and keep on teaching
Why would you retire if you love teaching and are old enough?
- Relieve the stress of continued threats to cancel classes due to low enrollment.
- Increase your monthly income since you can receive both your STRS pension and a paycheck
from the district. - You only increase your earned years of credit up to a certain age. After that, you might as well
apply for the pension - Your pension is based on highest years of earnings. Check with STRS to see if it is better to
retire now.
I was in both STRS and PERS and it was very important that I retire on the exact same day. In my case, the day after my last class meeting.
Here are the steps that you will need to go through:
If you were employed by more than one district (I was employed over the years by both GCCCD and
SDCCD) you have to decide which one are you retiring from? I am guessing that is the last one that
employed you. Therefore you have to contact the other one and have them send over your Accumulated Sick Leave to the one you are retiring from. If I were you, I would contact both so you can coordinate it, and in case they want to do the requesting instead of you. Accumulated sick leave is used in the calculation of retirement.
Did you belong to any other retirement system besides STRS? You will need to contact both
What I am now going to tell you is for STRS but it applies to any other systems you may have belonged to, such as PERS in my case.
Go to the STRS website, log in to My STRS or whatever the name is, and look everything over. Make
printouts of your history, accumulated retirement, year’s credit, etc. Whatever you can find. I am not
saying these things are there, or under those names, but it helps to get your curiosity going.
For SDCCD, go to People Soft and print out or save to your computer any and all information you can find about yourself. No telling which of that information you may need in the future so I found it helpful to have it with the other information I was accumulating.
Contact STRS and tell them you want to retire. They will want you to take a class, but tell them no – you need to retire now, unless you do want to take the class. What I didn’t like about the class is that the speakers seemed to direct the entire information to Contract Faculty that will be able to retired with 30 years credit. They did not address the Adjunct situation in the classes that I attended.
Did I understand that you are not teaching at all? Tell them your classes were cut and you aren’t sure if the retirement date should be after the last time you met with students or now.
See if there are any forms on the STRS website that you should fill out, or ask when you set up the
appointment if you should fill out anything?
Next step is to go make the appointment to talk to a counselor, then go to their office off in Mission
Valley. He gave me more things to fill out.
Next step after making sure STRS is happy, and any other retirement system, is to go to SDCCD Stadium Plaza and talk to HR”s Retirement people to turn in paperwork to them.
On every piece of paper that you turn in to SDCCD or your campus, if you plan to continue teaching as I did, write that on the paper. “Will continue to teach after retirement” is what I wrote.
They will give you a paper to turn in to Mesa College and while the District says to turn it in to the Payroll office at Mesa, Mesa has their own rules and it is to be turned in to your Dean. Again, make sure that you tell them you want to continue teaching.
Everyone thinks there is a rule that you can’t teach for 180 days but the actual rule is that if you do teach during that time, it will be offset against your pension. In my case, it has a net effect.
When should you retire? My retirement date was the day after my last class in the Fall semester. I felt it would be a slow time for STRS. The 180 day rule meant money paid in the first month or two while they figured out I was still working, was deducted from my pension, then they stopped paying my pension until the 180 day rule was satisfied. My fellow Adjuncts who retired after their last class in the Spring semester had much of their 180 days satisfied over the summer since they did not teach summer school. We are limited, after retirement, to teaching a 60% load but that is our limit as Adjuncts. Actually now the limit is earning $42.000 approximately. That is not a problem for me or my friends who don’t make that much as Adjuncts teaching at one district.
Your net pay will increase since STRS will no longer be deducted from your pay. For me, it meant over $200 more each paycheck.
Last but not least – do you have Social Security earnings that entitle you to collect retirement from
them? There are separate rules about that, but basically it doesn’t hurt to apply.