When the S.S.A. figures your benefits, they separate your average earnings into three amounts and multiply the figures using three factors. Under the windfall elimination provision, the S.S.A. figures your benefit under a modified formula in which the 90 percent factor is reduced to 40 percent. There are exceptions to this rule. If you have 21 to 29 years of substantial earnings, the 90 percent factor is reduced to somewhere between 45 and 85 percent. If your pension is from work where you also paid Social Security taxes, it will not affect your Social Security benefit.
Some people decide to continue working full-time beyond that retirement age.
Higher lifetime earnings may result in higher benefits when one retires. These increases, called delayed retirement credits, will be added in automatically from the time one reaches full retirement age until that individual starts taking benefits or reaches age 70. Full-retirement age has been 65 for many years. However, beginning with people born in 1938 or later, that age will gradually increase until it reaches 67 for people born after 1959. An individual who meets all other requirements for entitlement can receive benefits beginning with the first full month the individual turns age 62.