“I’ve been laid off”, “My hours have been cut”, “My wages have been reduced”, “I’m on unemployment”…. During this time many have had their financial bottom line affected and have wondered the impact on future entitlement. Will COVID affect my social security amount?
The short answer is maybe…. SSA benefit rates are computed using your earnings record. Retirement benefits are based on your top 35 years indexed for inflation. Gaps or reduction in wages do affect your SSA benefit computation:
* If you have 35 years of wages already on record, the impact could be negligible. If you have 20 years wages on record and now are unemployed, any gap year will result in zero’s being used in your benefit computation.
* Reduction in wages reduces the result of your computation. The higher your wage record the higher the benefit rate.
* If you return to work full time and your total earnings record has 35 years to use for the retirement computation no zero years are used.
* Unemployment benefits do not count as wages for SSA computational purposes. Only earned income is used in the calculation.
You can use the following calculator for exact details on your record:
Benefits Planner: Retirement | Online Benefits Calculator | SSA
Happy Holidays. Wishing all the best to you and yours in the New Year.
Maryellen Eckert
SSA Specialist
