re: Rep. Garret Graves escalates effort to repeal Social Security penalty for teachers, police

My wife was the opposite. Taught for 33 years in public and then for 16 years at private, paying into SS in the private school. Her teacher's retirement meant her SS benefit was cut to roughly $325 a month. Should have been about 5 times that. The offset is just a loophole to screw people who change from public to private retirement systems. In my opinion the government tends to screw over working people while bending over backwards for those who do not work.

My wife worked in education for 20 years and began receiving a pension. She has worked approximately 17 years in the private sector, paying SS taxes. Her estimated Full Retirement Age benefit from SS is $1728, but that will be reduced by the maximum WEP reduction of $512 based upon the year of reaching age 62. So if we wait until age 67, her SS benefit will be $1,216. A lot of posts state that you lose your SS, but for many, it's a lowering of SS. If you pay into SS between 20 and 30 years, there is a gradual reduction of the "penalty", and there is no reduction at 30 years. It would be great to get this increase, but considering that SS is already broke, I don't understand how they can manage this.