My Fire Department opted out of paying into SS years ago, so we could fund our own pensions by having 11% taken out every payday, upon retirement, we received our pensions. What they didn’t consider was most firemen worked side jobs the entire time and paid into SS. What they penalized us for. Let’s say you paid into SS and should have earned $2500 a month, but because your main employer opted out of SS, they reduced your entitlement by up to 2/3. This is my current situation. I started work at FD at age 30 and had already paid all my quarters into SS to earn $2800, but they cut me to $800. I also owned my own law care business while working as a firefighter and paid my share plus the employers share into SS, and was told SORRY but that’s the WEP (windfall elimination program) rules. These are the rules that basically got reversed. If you didn’t pay SS, you wouldn’t get anything.