Ripoff in 14 states: Social security and school teachers

Not good news:

Over a million public employees in California who qualify for Social Security –directly or indirectly through their spouses – won’t get the benefits when they retire. They include firefighters, police officers and schoolteachers. Years ago, Congress voted to keep pensioners from double dipping. But the decision wound up penalizing civil servants across the country.

Mark Sobel, a rabbi in Burbank, pays part of his salary into Social Security, but when he retires he won’t see a penny of it.

"I would like to earn back what I put in," he told NBC4, "which I think is the American way. It smacks of taxation without representation."

Brad Jackson worked for Ralph’s grocery stores for 25 years and paid part of his salary into Social Security. But he and his family are denied the full benefits.

"My children couldn’t benefit from it, " he said, "there are no survivor benefits."

Why this apparent injustice? Simple. At some point both men decided to take up a second career: the noble profession of teaching. Rabbi Sobel doubles as a history instructor in Sherman Oaks, California. Jackson quit Ralph’s to become a computer science teacher at the same high school. Once they entered academe, they forfeited the right to collect the Social Security benefits they’d earned in the private sector. So did their survivors, their spouses and children.

"If I pass away my wife will not get my Social Security benefits even though she was not a teacher. All the survivor’s benefits: child, spouse – it’s gone!" Sobel said.

Up until 1983, retired teachers in California could collect a state pension and the Social Security benefits earned from outside work. But then Congress voted to veto this so-called "double dipping." Teachers in 14 states –including California—who had opted for state pensions were denied Social Security benefits even if they’d paid into the fund while working in non-teacher jobs.

"Anyone that’s worked before retirement and then becomes a teacher, " Sobel said, " they lose all those benefits."

In every state there are other groups of civil servants such as police officers and firefighters who are similarly handicapped. They can collect state retirement benefits, but not Social Security earned in private employment.