Professor Larry, I have NJ police & fireman's pension that I started collected in 1998. in the years after until 2014 I worked full time paying into SS. Total payed to SSA for all years are me/ $19,791 and my employers/$19,048. I can supply the earnings records from SSA if requested. My Pension is considerably higher than the $1600 a month SS stated in their letter. I was told that my monthly payment due to WEP would be under $300. How do I go about appealing this to the SSA and what forms would I need. be advised at the time I started collecting I was told by the agent there wasn't any appeal process.....Thanking you in advance.....Richard
Hi Richard. You can't file an appeal questioning your benefit rate unless and until you apply for benefits and receive a determination from Social Security. Once you receive a notice of their determination, you have 60 days in which to file an appeal. The first appeals step is called reconsideration, and you can request a reconsideration either by using the following Social Security webpage: https://www.ssa.gov/apply/appeal-decision-we-made/request-reconsideration, or by submitting a completed form SSA-561 (https://www.ssa.gov/forms/ssa-561-u2.pdf) to Social Security.
By the way, Social Security retirement benefit rates are calculated based on an average of your best 35 years of Social Security covered wage-indexed earnings. The amount of Social Security taxes paid by you and your employer(s) isn't a direct factor in the benefit calculation process. Therefore, there isn't enough information in your question for me to know whether or not the benefit rate quoted to you by Social Security is likely accurate.
It does sound like your Social Security retirement benefit rate will probably be subject to reduction due to the Windfall Elimination Provision (WEP), though. When a person is collecting a pension based on their earnings that weren't subject to Social Security taxes, WEP can cause their Social Security retirement or disability benefit rate to be calculated using an alternate, less generous, benefit computation formula (https://www.ssa.gov/pubs/EN-05-10045.pdf).
Our software (https://maximizemysocialsecurity.com/purchase) is fully programmed to handle both WEP and non-WEP benefit calculations, so you may want to use the software to get an accurate estimate of your benefit rate and to fully compare and analyze all of your filing options so that you can determine your best strategy for maximizing your benefits.
Best, Jerry
