Full question: I am a retired teacher so I couldn’t get Social Security. I have 5 years of credit that I know of . I have worked as a substitute teacher for the last 2 and a half years, but I don’t think they took out money for Social Security. Is there a way I can make up for the money that wasn’t paid and get credit for those years?

Hi there,

Thank you for reaching out.

To address your concern about earning credits for the time you worked as a substitute teacher, you would need to have Social Security taxes withheld from your earnings to earn Social Security credits. If Social Security taxes were not withheld, you may want to contact your employer to clarify whether the position was covered by Social Security.

If it turns out that Social Security taxes should have been paid but weren’t, you can work with your employer to correct your earnings record. For more information on how to correct your earnings record, please refer here.

Please note that you cannot voluntarily pay Social Security taxes for years when no taxes were withheld and no credits were earned.

Best of luck,
Martha

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