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8 Types of Americans Who Aren’t Eligible to Get Social Security

May 24, 2022 · Retirement Life
Work credits
Photo by Lee Charlie from Shutterstock

1. Workers Who Don’t Have Enough Work Credits

You can’t get Social Security if you never worked. That’s a fact. According to the SSA, to qualify for these retirement benefits you need to have at least 40 work credits, the equivalent of a total of 10 years of work. More exactly, if you receive in 2022 one credit for each $1,510 in income, then you can earn the highest of 4 credits per year.

For those who earn the federal minimum wage of $7.25 an hour, they will need 208.28 hours of work to get one credit toward Social Security. If this is your case, you can obtain the maximum credits per year by working 17 hours per week for 50 weeks at this income and still giving yourself a two-week off. This means that even part-time workers can collect credits without too much trouble.

It’s worth mentioning that earned credits never expire. Let’s say John has left the labor force with close to 40 credits and now he wants to get rehired. Anyone in this situation, John included, can go back to work to earn those additional credits they need to qualify.

Curious to find out how many credits you have? You can open a Social Security account on their website and download your statement.

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40 comments on “8 Types of Americans Who Aren’t Eligible to Get Social Security”

  1. Christine Coates says:
    October 18, 2022 at 11:36 am

    Those people that were employed by the Federal Government do not receive social security benefits because they receive a Civil Service pension. They were entitled to receive SS benefits as a wife or widow until the Reagan Adm passed the law that stopped those benefits. So if you are a wife or. Widow that had the gumption to go out and work for the federal gov you are penalized unless your civil service pension is very low. Also at that time the social security money was separate from the general fund; putting social security money into the general fund was spent and now we are endanger of social security money being phased out by 2035.
    If I never worked a day in my life (especially as a dedicated federal employee) I would be entitled to widows social security benefits, but now I am not entitled to any social security benefits.

    Reply
  2. Barbara Scott says:
    October 24, 2022 at 3:28 pm

    I didn’t get my full Social Security because I retired from a town and got a county retirement. I had my full 40 quarters and they kept most of it. It’s not fair!!!!! I earned it and should have received it.

    Reply
  3. john Sharp says:
    December 4, 2022 at 12:03 am

    I worked as an Auditor for the state and then federal government before they were covered social security and because I left before retirement age, they only returned what I paid into the retirement.

    Reply
  4. Edward Reeh says:
    December 21, 2022 at 11:31 am

    If the illegal aliens are getting free everything from united states citizens then every American should receive benefits if people don’t stand up for there rights then America is screwed go vote and vote for someone who cares about the united states of America not themselves the people running the country now don’t care about the citizens of America look at what they are doing your money is going to people that are not American people and you’re letting them do it .let’s go Brandon!

    Reply
  5. Verlaine says:
    December 21, 2022 at 2:11 pm

    I do not have social security or medicare because I worked for the Postal Service and elected to become a CSRS employee. I received Medicare Part A and kept my postal health insurance.

    Reply
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