Here in Texas, our School Dist's don't pay into SS. Which means if all you've ever done is teach, you don't get SS when you retire. Here's what's bugging me: If you come into the School Dist from a job that pays into SS, thinking you'll work a few years and get 2 retirement checks, you won't. Teachers who would normally qualify for SS retirement only get about 1/4 of their SS benefits due to their also receiving Texas State Teachers Retirement payments. The School Dist's don't bother telling new hires that they've just forfeited their SS retirement. (well not in toto, but about 75% of it..) I know, Caveat Emptor and all that, but even teachers who are close to retirement don't even know this little fact. I've got family members in the local Schools who try to tell their fellow Teachers about this, and get called names for trying to help with good info RE: retirement planning. No one believes it, until it happens to them. Just my little rant for the day.
They do get the teacher's pension though...which is much more than they would get under SS. They didn't pay SS contributions, but they paid something, less than SS, into the Teacher's Pension Fund. What's the problem here? Don't they do better?
Even those who've contributed to SS for 20 yrs, IF they then work for a School Dist, have their SS retirement reduced by around 70%.
anyone else thinking what i'm thinking? "government leeches bitching because they aren't getting enough O-?"
The point Ian, is that thier total pension under the Teacher's Pension is probably higher than any SS payments they would get if they didn't get the teacher's pension. I suppose your 20 year case might be a special situation but it is hardly typical of the issue you are complaining about. I think the Teacher's Pension is a real insurance scheme in that it has real invested money that pays benefits (even if the teachers don't really pay for it), and it pays more than you could ever get from SS...so what are you bitching about?
the teachers pay ss but not the school dist. why should they get an equal payout as in the working world when less is put in? you really piss people off crying when you get a pension that's better. why should the people in the community pay for ss and than a pension too its the same thing in the end. your not going to find a friend here
I'm not a teacher, altho I did sub as one for a few years w/no bennies and LOW pay! LOL Case in point. Nurse lady hires on at the local School Dist as a school nurse, she's 49, worked in health care since her 20s, and paid into SS all that time. The School Dist isn't, hasn't, and ain't gonna tell her that when she retires from said School Dist, that she's going to get Teacher Retirement pay, and all those years of contributing into SS are now about 70% forfeit. There's many degreed adults working in Education who are literally laboring under the false assumption they'll get Full SS and Teacher Retirement when they do retire. And when they mention "Oh when I retire, I'll have 2 full retirement checks every month!" If a co-worker who knows the facts tries to inform them of the facts, the shit really flies.
You rationalize this like SS is like an insurance program. I know its supposed to be like an insurance program; but I thought everyone knew there was no lock box, no invested funds for benefits, that it is simply an IOU from the Government that when you retire the Government will borrow money to pay your benefit. The idea that you own what you paid in is a quaint misunderstanding of what SS has become. You do not address the net of the situation....what would the SS benefit be and what will the Teachers Pension benefit be...what is the difference between Teachers Pension plus 30% SS compared to 100% SS and no Teacher's Pension. Also, when the nurse or whoever stops paying SS out of thier payroll each week, doesn't that inform them that there is a change...what if they invested the money that they would have otherwise paid into SS in those years...what would the value of those funds become? Why do people think they should get two pensions on the back of taxpayers? Why don't people realize that SS has become a tax/welfare system and not an insurance system where you have some claim on what you paid in? Who teaches these people?