A bill is being thought about by lawmakers that could give millions of people more money from Social Security. There are gaps in the Social Security Fairness Act that would close so that retirees who get certain government pensions or other benefits can get their payments.
The bill is making progress after lawmakers successfully advanced it earlier this month using a discharge petition, which lets bills be brought to the House of Representatives floor for consideration without a report from the relevant committee.
A new reform will likely impact Social Security benefits as we know them
Also, any changes made by the bill’s possible passage could have an effect on millions of people who get Social Security. More than 300 House members from both parties have signed on to back the bill. It was introduced by Republican Garret Graves and has support from both parties.
The Social Security Fairness Act would then get rid of the Government Pension Offset (GPO) and Windfall Elimination Provision (WEP) rules. People who get Social Security benefits and have pension income from state jobs for which they did not pay Social Security payroll taxes have their benefits cut by the WEP. This is true even if they have made other contributions to the program.
At the moment, the WEP affects more than two million people who get Social Security. About 800,000 retirees will lose their spousal payments because of the Government Pension Offset. This is a feature that affects retired federal, state, and local government workers who did not pay into Social Security through payroll taxes. Just to sum up, the bill would:
- Repeal restrictions that limit Social Security payments for people who also receive state or local government pensions.
- Eliminates the government pension offset, which can lower Social Security benefits for spouses, widows, and widowers who get their government pensions.
- Eliminates the windfall elimination provision, which decreases Social Security payments in some cases for those who also get a pension or disability benefit from an employer who did not withhold Social Security taxes.
If it gets passed by the legislature, it will start to affect all SSA-administered retirement payments in December 2023. After that, everyone who was covered by the bill would get more money from Social Security.
The Urban Institute did study in 2020 that said getting rid of the GPO and WEP might lead to benefits increases for 4.5% of beneficiaries in 2025. At that time, the “annual increase for those affected would average about $7,300.”
How much will the cost change?
The federal government has to pay more because people are getting more benefits. The law is projected to add $195 billion to the national deficit by 2034, according to the Congressional Budget Office. With the help of Graves (a Republican) and Spanberger (a Democrat), the discharge petition got 218 signatures, with 47 Republicans and 171 Democrats signing it.
This shows that the bill has support from both parties. Millions of retired government workers from Virginia to Louisiana and every other state in the U.S. have been waiting for their elected officials to solve this basic issue of fairness for more than 40 years, according to a statement from the politicians.
The hard work of these retirees has won them Social Security benefits, and they also deserve to see the WEP and GPO go away. He also said that they would do everything possible to make sure that the Social Security Fairness Act is passed by both the US House and the US Senate and becomes law.
We need to finish it. Also, experts have noticed that people who get a pension from a company that isn’t covered by Social Security may have paid into the program when they worked, so it’s not fair to take away their contributions later in life.
Mary Johnson, a social security and Medicare policy expert who works on her own, says that these are people who made credits towards their Social Security benefits from jobs they had outside of their government-paid jobs.
They shouldn’t be punished because they worked for the government as firemen, teachers, or in other jobs. People who work hard should get all of their Social Security income.
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