Q. I have 43 years of service: 22 years under CSRS, which includes 4 years military active duty that I “ bought back,” as well as 21 years under FERS. There was no break in service. Will my 4 years of active duty, in which I paid Social Security, give me essentially 25 years of “ substantial earnings” towards the WEP provision?
A. It depends upon how much you earned year. The schedule of annual earnings required to qualify as “substantial” is available at https://www.ssa.gov/pubs/EN-05-10045.pdf.
You can compare the earnings for year as listed in your Social Security benefit statement (available athttp://www.ssa.gov) with the Substantial Earnings schedule to see how many years of Substantial Earnings are in your record.
