My question is concerning the ‘Windfall Elimination Provision’ (WEP), the law that takes away part of your Social Security benefits if you had income (in the US) for which you did not pay into SS at the time.
As I only immigrated to this country in the middle of my life, I have worked in my original home country (Switzerland) for the first part of my life. Therefore I receive a small pension (or Swiss social security payment) which I earned before I ever was obligated to pay into Social security as this was before I ever set foot into the USA.
After moving to Oregon and later on becoming a US citizen, I only worked here and never worked abroad again since.
When I turned 66 and applied for Social security payments, I was informed, that about half of the payments I receive from Switzerland would be taken out of my US payments, because of the ‘Windfall Elimination Provision’.
Everybody I talked to so far agreed that this makes absolutely no sense at all, but that it is ‘the law’.
I am curious if this is really how this law is supposed to be applied to earnings that had nothing to do with any obligation towards the US yet. I feel as if I am being punished for not living here since birth, as if I had paid the same amount I paid during the first part of my life into social security in the US, nobody would consider taking this part away from me.
I am at a loss to understand the ‘fairness’ of this law or how to find out if I have a chance to fight this decision.
I have contacted several lawyers who advertise themselves as Social Security specialists and none of them even knew what the WEP was. I also spoke to the lawyers of both of our senators and they did not come up with any possible solution.
I would be grateful for any information concerning any chances in attempting to repeal this decision of the Social Security administration concerning my case or that of all the immigrants affected by this law
Thank you very much
Lis
Hi Lis,
The reasoning that Congress used when passing the WEP provision in 1985 is that they felt that the formula used for computing Social Security retirement benefits unfairly rewarded people who only paid Social Security taxes for part of their working lives because during the other part of their working lives they paid into a different pension fund for which they are separately compensated. The Social Security benefit formula is designed to give workers who've had lower average earnings throughout their lifetimes a higher percentage return on their contributions than higher earners, reasoning that the lower earners need the extra boost in order to be able to meet their living expenses when they are no longer able to work due to old age or disability. This is essentially the 'Social' part of Social Security.
This presumption doesn't hold true for workers whose low average earnings result from not paying Social Security taxes for a number of years while they were paying into a non-covered pension plan. Those workers have income from the other pension plan available to supplement their Social Security benefits. The WEP formula is designed to reduce the percentage return to such workers to a rate more in line with that paid to higher earners. And, it doesn't matter whether the non-covered pension plan is domestic or foreign, so it's not only immigrants who are affected by WEP.
Anyway, that's the basic reasoning used by Congress, and only Congress has the power to repeal or amend the WEP provision. It sounds like WEP was likely properly applied in your case, but you may want to peruse the following Social Security publication to see if you think you might meet one of the exceptions to the law: https://www.ssa.gov/pubs/EN-05-10045.pdf.
Best, Jerry
