Workers who have 30 years of coverage (YOC) are fully exempt from WEP. Workers with 21 to 29 YOCs are eligible for a partial exemption. The percentage used at the first bendpoint is the higher of the percentage based on (1) attainment of age 62 or disability or (2) on YOCs.

All wages, including military service wage credits, from 1937 to present on the earnings record are used to determine the total number of YOCs for WEP purposes. RS 01701.000 provides the policy on when wage credits can be granted for pre-1957 military service. When it is determined that wage credits can be granted and military service evidence has been secured, the credits are added to the earnings record and treated as regular covered wages for determining YOCs. When it is determined that wage credits cannot be granted (i.e., military service used by another federal agency) or evidence has not been received, then nothing is added to the earnings record. When alleged military service is input, the system considers all military service as proven when calculating YOCs for a WEP exemption. Therefore, the adjudicator must recognize and document all military service used to determine WEP YOCs, especially pre-1951 military service when a New Start 1978 PIA computation applies.

The chart below can be used to manually determine the number of YOCs.

Divide total pre-1951 wages by $900.

Drop any remainder. Total cannot exceed 14. TOTAL

Circle the year where the posted amount including covered railroad wages and deemed/gratuitous military wages exceeds the total in the "Amount" column.

 

In July 1985, the State of Louisiana enacted legislation (Act No. 154) granting early retirement to certain employees covered by 1 of the 13 public retirement systems. The early retirement provision is available to any member covered under a public retirement system who on September 1, 1985 had sufficient service credit to be eligible for normal retirement. For those systems that provide for normal retirement at varying levels of service credit (e.g., 20 service years at age 55, 20 at age 60, 10 at age 65), the minimum years of service credit would qualify the member for early retirement under this provision.

For instance, a member of the State Employee's Retirement System, regardless of age, with at least 10 years of service credit as of September 1, 1985, would be eligible for early retirement, under this legislation.

At the time of filing for RIB or DIB, if the NH alleges eligibility to a pension based on this 1985 early retirement provision, the NH must provide evidence from the pension paying agency establishing the NH met the early retirement provisions of the July 1985 legislation (Act No. 154).

NOTE: SSA has determined that the State of Louisiana Act 132 of 1995 is NOT binding on SSA's determination of WEP and GPO and is being disregarded in administering the WEP and GPO provisions of the Social Security Act. When requesting an eligibility date from any of the Louisiana retirement systems, specifically ask for the date of first eligibility without consideration of Act 132 of 1995 so that a proper determination of an exemption to WEP can be made.