Ask Rusty: How Do I Maximize My Social Security Benefit?

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Dear Rusty: I want to apply for Social Security, but I want to make sure I get all the benefits I have earned. I am a veteran with a 10 percent disability rating (not sure if that matters). I am 68 years old. I am a minister and have been exempt from Social Security taxes […]

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Dear Rusty: I want to apply for Social Security, but I want to make sure I get all the benefits I have earned. I am a veteran with a 10 percent disability rating (not sure if that matters). I am 68 years old. I am a minister and have been exempt from Social Security taxes for most of my income since I was about age 30, but I still have the 40 quarters needed. I have also worked off and on in the secular workplace and continued paying Social Security taxes.
One hears a great deal about those who want to “help” us apply for Social Security (SS), but it can turn out to be a scam or require a fee. How do I apply for and maximize my SS benefits with my unique situation?
Signed: Seeking Answers

Dear Seeking Answers: Don’t worry about fees here at the AMAC Foundation — there is never a fee for the services we provide (we are nonprofit). And I want to thank you for your military service — you may find the “For Veterans” section at our AMAC Foundation website (www.amacfoundation.org) interesting.
To your question: Your VA disability rating does not affect your Social Security benefit. At 68 years old, your Social Security benefit payment has been earning Delayed Retirement Credits (DRCs) since you reached your full retirement age (FRA) of 66 years and 4 months in July 2022. That means that your benefit, if you claim now, will be about 13 percent more than it would have been had you claimed at your FRA. FYI, if you continue to delay, your SS benefit will continue to grow (by 8 percent per additional year you delay), up to the month you turn 70. At that time, your SS benefit will be 29 percent higher than it would have been at your FRA. Nevertheless, if you wish to claim a smaller amount now, you can do so in a couple of ways:
• You can call the Social Security Administration (SSA) at (800) 772-1213, or call your local SSA office to request an appointment to apply. The agency will most likely set a date/time to call you to take your application over the phone (it discourages office visits these days). Once you have applied, it typically takes a month or two to process your application, but it will pay your benefits effective with the month you say you want them to begin. Note, the SSA will likely also offer you six months of retroactive benefits but be aware that if you accept that offer your monthly payment will be permanently reduced by 4 percent.
• You can apply for your SS retirement benefit online at www.ssa.gov/apply. Applying online is, by far, the most efficient method, as shown in this short video: www.ssa.gov/hlp/video/iclaim_r01.htm. However, to apply online you will need to first create your personal “my Social Security” online account at www.ssa.gov/myaccount. Once you have your personal online account set up, you will be able to see what your SS retirement benefit will be now, and at future ages should you plan to wait longer to claim. Your SS retirement benefit will be based on your lifetime record of earnings from which Social Security FICA taxes were withheld (or self-employment earnings on which SS payroll taxes were levied). In any case, your SS benefit will be based on your lifetime earnings record contributing to Social Security, as well as your age when you claim. You’ll get your maximum benefit based on those factors.
Although your situation is somewhat uncommon, it is not exceptionally unique. Your VA disability rating does not affect your Social Security benefit and, because you are a member of the clergy, you are not subject to Social Security’s Windfall Elimination Provision (WEP) — a rule that reduces SS benefits for those with a pension earned while not contributing to Social Security. In other words, your SS benefit will be based entirely on your lifetime record of earnings from which Social Security payroll taxes were withheld, and your age when your benefit starts.

Russell Gloor is a national Social Security advisor at the AMAC Foundation,the nonprofit arm of the Association of Mature American Citizens (AMAC). The 2.4-million-member AMAC says it is a senior advocacy organization. Send your questions to: ssadvisor@amacfoundation.org.
Author’s note: This article is intended for information purposes only and does not represent legal or financial guidance. It presents the opinions and interpretations of the AMAC Foundation’s staff, trained and accredited by the National Social Security Association (NSSA). The NSSA and the AMAC Foundation and its staff are not affiliated with or endorsed by the Social Security Administration or any other governmental entity.

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VIEWPOINT: EEOC Publishes New Guidance on Workplace Harassment

Employee Benefits & Human Resources, Business Mentors, Subscriber Only

It’s the first time in nearly 25 years On April 29, 2024, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) published “Enforcement Guidance on Harassment in the Workplace.” The guidance took effect immediately and supersedes the EEOC’s previously published guidance from the 1980s and 1990s. Since the EEOC has not published guidance regarding workplace harassment for almost

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It’s the first time in nearly 25 years

On April 29, 2024, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) published “Enforcement Guidance on Harassment in the Workplace.” The guidance took effect immediately and supersedes the EEOC’s previously published guidance from the 1980s and 1990s. Since the EEOC has not published guidance regarding workplace harassment for almost 25 years, the guidance addresses recent and developing areas such as workplace harassment related to sexual orientation and gender identity, pregnancy and related medical conditions, and remote work.

Sexual orientation and gender identity

The Supreme Court’s 2020 Bostock v. Clayton County decision extended employment discrimination under Title VII to include discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity. With that expansion, the guidance provides examples of harassing conduct based on those protected characteristics, and explains that harassing behavior based on sexual orientation and gender identity can include, among other things:

• outing, or disclosure of an individual’s sexual orientation or gender identity without permission;

• harassing conduct because an individual does not present in a manner that would stereotypically be associated with that person’s sex;

• misgendering, or repeated and intentional use of a name or pronoun inconsistent with an individual’s known gender identity; and,

• denial of access to a bathroom or other sex-segregated facility consistent with the individual’s gender identity.

Pregnancy, childbirth, or related medical conditions

In the wake of new laws protecting employees with pregnancy, childbirth, or related medical conditions (i.e., the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act and Providing Urgent Maternal Protections for Nursing Mothers Act), the guidance reiterates that sex-based discrimination under Title VII extends to such conditions. To that end, the EEOC confirms that workplace harassment can arise from topics such as:

• changes in physical appearance due to pregnancy;

• lactation;

• morning sickness;

• using or not using contraception; or

• deciding to have or not have an abortion.

Remote work

Given the rise of remote work, the guidance emphasized that harassment may occur in a work-related context outside an employee’s regular workplace, and extends to harassment through an employer’s email, instant-messaging system, videoconferencing, social-media accounts, and other equivalent resources. The guidance provides the following examples that may contribute to a hostile work environment through remote work:

• sexist comments made during a video meeting;

• ageist or ableist comments typed in a group chat;

• racist imagery that is visible in an employee’s workspace while the employee participates in a video meeting; or

• sexual comments made during a video meeting about a bed being near an employee in the video image.

Conclusion

The guidance, which includes more than 70 practical examples, provides advice on a variety of issues related to harassment, and serves as a resource for employers when investigating and deciding workplace-harassment issues. However, New York employers should be aware that the federal standard for a hostile work environment (severe or pervasive) is higher than that required by New York State (petty slights or trivial inconveniences). Therefore, conduct that does not rise to the level of unlawful harassment under federal law, such as Title VII, ADEA, and the ADA (which the guidance covers), may still be unlawful under New York law. With that distinction, New York employers should exercise caution and avoid overreliance on this new guidance.

Natalie C. Vogel is an associate attorney in the Albany office of the Syracuse–based law firm of Bond, Schoeneck & King PLLC. Contact Vogel at nvogel@bsk.com. This article is drawn and edited from the New York Labor and Employment Law Report blog on Bond’s website.

Lockheed Martin’s Salina plant wins $21M Navy contract modification for submarine electronic-warfare system

Manufacturing & Engineering, Subscriber Only, Technology

SALINA — The Lockheed Martin Corp. (NYSE: LMT) plant in the northern suburbs of Syracuse has been awarded a $21.4 million modification to a previously awarded delivery order under a contract to exercise options for design and qualification testing of the AN/BLQ-10 submarine electronic-warfare system. Work will be performed in the town of Salina and

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OPINION: Common-Sense Solutions Continue to Get Lost in Albany

Opinion, Subscriber Only

Albany politics once again are getting in the way of measures aimed at ensuring a safer learning environment for students and educators, as well as efforts to provide greater protections for crime victims and their families. During committee work [the week of May 6-10] in the Assembly, Republican proposals were blocked from advancing to the

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We are only a few weeks removed from enacting a new record-high state spending plan that failed to address most New Yorkers’ biggest concerns — affordability and public safety. Last month, Democrats wholly rejected Assembly Republican efforts to target quality-of-life issues in this state. [And now], Democrats again maintained the status quo by refusing to allow more than 30 Republican-sponsored bills — many aimed at tackling the issues most important to New York’s families while also ignoring much-needed efforts to improve government waste and dysfunction — from making it to the floor for a vote.

These measures included efforts to hold more criminals accountable and empower crime victims and their families as New Yorkers seek corrective action in the wake of the 2019 bail-reform laws that have led to increased violence and crime in our communities. While some in Albany favor catering to a pro-criminal ideology, we will continue to place the priority on law-abiding citizens and our partners in law enforcement. It’s time to start restoring order in this state.

In the past year, Assembly Republicans have introduced numerous recommendations following the Task Force on School Safety & Security to improve the level of school safety across the state. As disruptions, unrest, and violence permeate in educational institutions in New York state, the commitment to the protection and well-being of our students, educators, and school staff should be of the utmost importance.

Following these questionable policy decisions and other worrisome actions from Albany, New Yorkers’ confidence in state government is, in many respects, rightfully low. Seeking to lift the veil of secrecy from a government that is supposed to work for the people should hardly be considered controversial. Yet, our conference’s efforts to champion government reform to increase not only transparency and accountability but efficiency as well, have been stonewalled.

Assembly Democrats even blocked a measure supported by the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense that would benefit military families and the state’s health-care system. The legislation is outlined as part of the Military Community and Family Policy’s top 10 priorities for states to consider for the quality of life for service members and their families.

Sadly, the departure from common sense in New York is an all-too-familiar tale. The Assembly Republican Conference will continue to advance an agenda focused on reversing the destructive policy decisions of one-party rule in Albany. The future of our state is in the balance.

William (Will) A. Barclay, 55, Republican, is the New York Assembly minority leader and represents the 120th New York Assembly District, which encompasses all of Oswego County, as well as parts of Jefferson and Cayuga counties.

OPINION: Congress Just Accomplished Something. Can It Do It Again?

Opinion, Subscriber Only

Until recently, it seemed like you couldn’t turn around without finding a headline lambasting the current Congress as the least productive ever. There was good reason for that, which we’ll get into shortly, but it’s worth noting that they’ve suddenly disappeared. Clearly, that’s because of April’s passage of the foreign-aid package that includes significant aid

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There was a great deal that was notable about these steps, including the willingness of GOP House Speaker Mike Johnson to buck members of his own party and not only bring the package to the floor, but also turn to Democrats for help in passing it. To my mind, though, something even more notable took place: The Republican caucuses in both the House and the Senate divided over the matter — as did Democrats, if not quite as dramatically. In other words, members of both chambers voted as they saw fit, not according to the party line or in lockstep. It’s been a while since we’ve seen this, and here’s hoping we see more.

To be sure, even before the foreign-aid votes, Congress wasn’t quite as tangled by gridlock as it was often painted in the media. Just in the last few months, its members reached a budget deal that keeps the government operating into the fall, and they passed a variety of smaller measures in bipartisan fashion — including one to give a boost to nuclear energy.

Still, there is no question that the current Congress went into this spring with a notable lack of accomplishments on the major issues confronting the U.S. Part of this is just hard numbers. In 2023, Congress passed just 34 bills, the fewest in decades. Even given modern trends — the concentration of power in leadership hands that has produced great reliance on omnibus bills and continuing resolutions, rather than the more incremental legislating that marked Congress in its more productive days — that’s not much to show. And it’s worth remembering that some of the bills Congress did pass, including the budget bill and the foreign-aid package, were hung up for months by partisanship and intra-party wrangling.

There’s no mystery about what happened. The House, in particular, has been hamstrung by infighting within the Republican majority that has produced a succession of speakers, cliff’s-edge ultimatums, and an inability to tackle major issues that everyone on Capitol Hill knows must be addressed. Passing a budget is pretty much the bare minimum we should expect, but Americans also have a right to wonder just why their Congress has been missing in action on everything from guns to abortion to immigration to the budget deficit.

But it’s also worth pointing out that passing legislation isn’t the only measure of Congress’s worth. When I was first elected to Congress in 1964, the percentage of Americans saying they had trust in government was almost 80 percent — today it’s closer to 20 percent. There are plenty of reasons for this long-term decline, but there’s not much question that partisan gamesmanship in Congress over the last few decades has played a substantial role.

And it’s not just the public that’s expressing dissatisfaction. This year and last have seen a bewildering array of members of Congress themselves — mostly in the House — decide either to leave after this term or, even more unusually, to step down in the middle of the term. Members know the institution better than anyone, and with this wave of unexpected retirements, they’re being quite blunt about their feelings on how well it’s working.

My hope is that congressional leaders take a leaf from their own recent playbook on foreign aid. Congress has been stuck in part because leaders and legislators have prized party unity over tangible accomplishment — to the dismay of the vast majority of Americans who tend to be less ideologically committed and more pragmatic about where policy should wind up than the people who represent them. It’s time for Congress to focus more on the pragmatic accomplishments that Americans want, and less on party ideology.

Lee Hamilton, 93, is a senior advisor for the Indiana University (IU) Center on Representative Government, distinguished scholar at the IU Hamilton Lugar School of Global and International Studies, and professor of practice at the IU O’Neill School of Public and Environmental Affairs. Hamilton, a Democrat, was a member of the U.S. House of Representatives for 34 years (1965-1999), representing a district in south-central Indiana.

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It’s the first time in nearly 25 years

Sexual orientation and gender identity

Pregnancy, childbirth, or related medical conditions

Remote work

Conclusion

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