I retired from municipal law enforcement after 25 years back in 2010 and began collecting my pension then. In this job I also contributed to social security. In 2013 I took a job with the State of Maine and began contributing to the state retirement plan. In approximately 6 months I become vested and quality for a benefit if I don't withdraw my contributions. I have read that the wep only applies to the primary pension. How would the wep apply if I stayed in the state pension system. The state pension will likely be less than the gov pension I currently receive where I paid in towards SS as well.

Hi,

It sounds like you may be confusing the Windfall Elimination Provision (WEP) provisions. The non-covered pension doesn't have to be your primary pension in order to cause a WEP reduction in your benefit rate. However, there is a provision that can cause payments from certain defined contribution plans to be excluded from WEP consideration if they are not the employer's primary retirement plan (https://secure.ssa.gov/apps10/poms.nsf/lnx/0300605364).

I could be mistaken, but it sounds like the pension that you are vested in from your work at the State of Maine is a standard pension plan and not a supplemental type of defined contribution plan. Assuming that's the case, your Social Security retirement benefit rate will likely be reduced as a result of WEP if and when you start drawing both Social Security and your state pension (https://www.ssa.gov/pubs/EN-05-10045.pdf). Whether your state pension is lower than your municipal pension or not is irrelevant.

The maximization software available on this website is programmed to handle WEP cases, so you may want to consider using it to determine your best filing strategy.

Best, Jerry