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braisler · 02-25-2009, 08:56 AM

So here is the scenario, dear friends. I received a Social Security statement in the mail recently that said that I have 0 recorded income for the past 2 years (2006, 2007). I've been working during that time as a university professor, so I was a bit surprised. So I called the 1-800 number on the form to find out why this might be the case. Sure enough, they have me listed as not having any income for SS. I asked why this would be the case and the SS representative on the phone said that many state universities like mine don't pay into social security because they have their own independent pension systems. Not the case with mine.

After the phone conversation, I looked into it further and found that the line items for SSI payment are indeed missing from my paystubs. I know that I maybe should have looked at this earlier, but not missing any money from my check wasn't a cause for me to inspect it quite closely. To be clear, federal withholding is still taken out of my pay, just the SSI is missing. What I believe happened is that I was previously employed here, at this same university, as a Post-Doctoral Fellow. Post-Docs are considered to still be 'in training' and aren't subject to SSI withholding. Somehow when I got hired as faculty, the SSI never got added back into my pay structure. I've talked with other staff and one other faculty member at work and verified that they are having SSI removed from their paychecks. So it seems to be isolated to just me.

The first question that comes to mind is what should I do about this? I already talked with SS directly on the phone, and they seem to assume that the money is not due them due to some state vs. federal pension arrangement that I'm pretty sure doesn't exist. My feeling is to avoid rocking the boat and just let it slide along under the radar. If it were to ever come to the surface, I would just claim ignorance of the whole situation.

I have very strong feelings about Social Security in general and if I could opt out of it, I would not hesitate. Social Security is a scam, a fraud founded in another era when people rarely lived past 65. The government made the promise of social support to aging workers with the then current actuarial tables to show that payments out of the system would be quite minimal. That is, most people would be dead before 65 or so soon after that payments would be for 1-5 years. Now people are often living to 70, 75, 85 and the whole system has failed. Modern Social Security is a pyramid scheme where the working youth pay for the retired workers of one to two generations ago. I do not believe for one second that Social Security will be around when I am ready to retire. In effect, the government is stealing my money with no intent of ever giving it back.

I guess my concern in all of this is the potential for government penalties and back payment of large lump sums if this does ever come to light. My employer, the University, is the one that made the error, but does that protect me from liability. (This post not withstanding, I could claim no knowledge of the issue). The university is also required to pay in for my employment to SS, so they have a financial liability here as well. Anyone here with experience or knowledge in this area?

An additional slight complication is that I discussed this with one of my co-workers... she was one of the people I compared paystubs with to see if she had SSI deduction when I didn't. In retrospect, this was a mistake. She is a gossip and very nosy. Since I brought this up last week, she has asked me what I am going to do about it maybe 6 times. And she has voiced the opinion that I better get it straightened out right away or there might be bad consequences. Not that she is going to outright turn me in or anything, but she is the type to relate my 'problems' to all of the people she gossips with. So, what, if anything do I tell her? I've already pretty much told her that I've taken care of it, which was my way of telling her that I'm handling things and she should buzz off. But she has pressed for details about what I did, and what the university did, and how they handled the back payments due, etc. Do I construct a lie to hand her that the University is adding back payment to my SSI monthly now and the problem is fixed? Do I outright tell her to mind her own business about it?

02-25-2009, 08:56 AM	#1 (permalink)
braisler Addict Location: Midway, KY	Opting out of Social Security... sort of So here is the scenario, dear friends. I received a Social Security statement in the mail recently that said that I have 0 recorded income for the past 2 years (2006, 2007). I've been working during that time as a university professor, so I was a bit surprised. So I called the 1-800 number on the form to find out why this might be the case. Sure enough, they have me listed as not having any income for SS. I asked why this would be the case and the SS representative on the phone said that many state universities like mine don't pay into social security because they have their own independent pension systems. Not the case with mine. After the phone conversation, I looked into it further and found that the line items for SSI payment are indeed missing from my paystubs. I know that I maybe should have looked at this earlier, but not missing any money from my check wasn't a cause for me to inspect it quite closely. To be clear, federal withholding is still taken out of my pay, just the SSI is missing. What I believe happened is that I was previously employed here, at this same university, as a Post-Doctoral Fellow. Post-Docs are considered to still be 'in training' and aren't subject to SSI withholding. Somehow when I got hired as faculty, the SSI never got added back into my pay structure. I've talked with other staff and one other faculty member at work and verified that they are having SSI removed from their paychecks. So it seems to be isolated to just me. The first question that comes to mind is what should I do about this? I already talked with SS directly on the phone, and they seem to assume that the money is not due them due to some state vs. federal pension arrangement that I'm pretty sure doesn't exist. My feeling is to avoid rocking the boat and just let it slide along under the radar. If it were to ever come to the surface, I would just claim ignorance of the whole situation. I have very strong feelings about Social Security in general and if I could opt out of it, I would not hesitate. Social Security is a scam, a fraud founded in another era when people rarely lived past 65. The government made the promise of social support to aging workers with the then current actuarial tables to show that payments out of the system would be quite minimal. That is, most people would be dead before 65 or so soon after that payments would be for 1-5 years. Now people are often living to 70, 75, 85 and the whole system has failed. Modern Social Security is a pyramid scheme where the working youth pay for the retired workers of one to two generations ago. I do not believe for one second that Social Security will be around when I am ready to retire. In effect, the government is stealing my money with no intent of ever giving it back. I guess my concern in all of this is the potential for government penalties and back payment of large lump sums if this does ever come to light. My employer, the University, is the one that made the error, but does that protect me from liability. (This post not withstanding, I could claim no knowledge of the issue). The university is also required to pay in for my employment to SS, so they have a financial liability here as well. Anyone here with experience or knowledge in this area? An additional slight complication is that I discussed this with one of my co-workers... she was one of the people I compared paystubs with to see if she had SSI deduction when I didn't. In retrospect, this was a mistake. She is a gossip and very nosy. Since I brought this up last week, she has asked me what I am going to do about it maybe 6 times. And she has voiced the opinion that I better get it straightened out right away or there might be bad consequences. Not that she is going to outright turn me in or anything, but she is the type to relate my 'problems' to all of the people she gossips with. So, what, if anything do I tell her? I've already pretty much told her that I've taken care of it, which was my way of telling her that I'm handling things and she should buzz off. But she has pressed for details about what I did, and what the university did, and how they handled the back payments due, etc. Do I construct a lie to hand her that the University is adding back payment to my SSI monthly now and the problem is fixed? Do I outright tell her to mind her own business about it? __________________ --- You do not really understand something unless you can explain it to your grandmother. - Albert Einstein ---