I paid into both Social Security and Ohio Public Employees Retirement OPERs. Why can't I collect both?

After working full time and paying SS for about 10 years I quit my job to raise a family. I occasionally worked part time during those years when things were lean. I have a substantial investment in SS. When the kids were raised I took a job (which I love) as an Ohio county employee paying into the State pension plan OPERS. I invested 3.5 years working part time to land my present full time position. I recently heard that I can't collect both the Social Security that I earned and the OPERS pension. It's called "double dipping"
I DO NOT UNDERSTAND why this is double dipping.
I worked hard and earned the social security benefits.
I am paying into OPERS. I may not have taken this job if I had understood the impact it would have on my pension. I am 58 years old and nearing the end of my working years.
Can someone explain this to me? I am not just venting.
I honestly do not understand why I can't have everything that I have worked for. I earned both.
Thank you!

you can collect booth but you SSI you won't collect at the full benift that you earned. I know i live in Ohio and it sucks. It is the same for all county and state employees

i'm not familiar with the provisions of OPERS.

the likely cause is that both plans provide "extra" benefits to workers with short work careers ... Social Security, for example, only requires 40 quarters [10 years] of work to achieve "full" benefits.

If OPERs is the same, as I suspect, then it would be relatively easy for someone to work 12 years in each of three such systems and then draw three "full" checks -- all of them subsidized by the other workers in each system.

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I believe that when the time comes to retire from Ohio that you will have the opportunity to withdraw all of your contributions to OPERS, plus the accumulated interest, and roll it over without tax penalty into an individual IRA plan.

That way, you'll get social security and the annual withdrawals from the IRA [which will be smaller than the pension OPERS provides 10 year employees but won't draw a subsidy from other Ohio government employees].

You can't collect Social Security because you are not old enough. You need to be at least 62.

When you do collect Social Security you will be subject to the windfall elimination provision unless you have more time on the books than you have stated. Workers who have less than 20 years of Social Security coverage with substantial wages (that are not really substantial) will get a reduced benefit. This results in people who had part time jobs covered by Social Security but whose principal job wages were exempt not getting a windfall from the tilt of benefits that favors low wage earners.

http://www.ssa.gov/pubs/10045.html

The reason you can't collect from both is that each system is intended to provide a safety net for lower income workers and less support as your income rises. SSA looks at the big picture, how many years you put into BOTH systems and how much the state system is already guaranteeing you and reduces your SSA benefits accordingly.

A traditional pension isn't a safety net. It's based on years of service and uses a percentage of income.