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INTRODUCTION TO YOUR SOCIAL SECURITY PENALTIES
The Retired Public Employees Association has, for years,
been trying to inform active employees about their Social
Security retirement in detail. Active employees need to
thoroughly research their Social Security benefits, prior to
retiring. It is recommended that all public employees do this
at least 10 years prior to their anticipated date of retirement.
The dastardly acts that our federal representatives have
dealt, us are unjust and must be reversed. Plan now, and
be prepared at the time of your retirement.
The Social Security Fairness Act would repeal two unjust
Social Security provisions that hurt more than a million
teachers, school support personnel, police officers,
firefighters and other public employees nationwide. These
offset provisions reduce or eliminate earned Social Security
benefits for retirees who receive a pension for non-Social
Security-covered employment. The offsets apply only to
public pensions; recipients of private pensions are not
subject to such penalties.
While these Social Security benefit reductions may have
been intended to curtail payments of windfall benefits to
highly paid individuals, in practice they have had
devastating consequences for low and middle income
public employees. These provisions are the Government
Pension Offset (GPO) and the so-called Windfall Elimination
Provision (WEP). Each of these provisions can drastically
reduce monthly Social Security benefits drastically.
The GPO reduces a Social Security survivor’s benefit by
two-thirds of their public pension that is not covered by
Social Security – wiping out the survivor’s benefit entirely
for many workers. The WEP currently can take
away up to $328 a month of Social Security benefits earned
by a state or local public employee who has contributed to
Social Security for as many as 20 years, and the WEP does
not phase out completely until a worker has 30 years of
covered Social Security employment.
Besides being unfair to those who have paid into Social
Security but are being denied its full benefits, these
provisions have perverse effects. For example, by targeting
pensions of teachers and other school employees, these
Social Security benefit cuts discourage qualified individuals
from entering and staying in the classroom at exactly the
time when our nation faces a severe shortage of qualified
educators.
The Retired Public Employees Association has, for years,
been trying to inform active employees about their Social
Security retirement in detail. Active employees need to
thoroughly research their Social Security benefits, prior to
retiring. It is recommended that all public employees do this
at least 10 years prior to their anticipated date of retirement.
The dastardly acts that our federal representatives have
dealt, us are unjust and must be reversed. Plan now, and
be prepared at the time of your retirement.
The Social Security Fairness Act would repeal two unjust
Social Security provisions that hurt more than a million
teachers, school support personnel, police officers,
firefighters and other public employees nationwide. These
offset provisions reduce or eliminate earned Social Security
benefits for retirees who receive a pension for non-Social
Security-covered employment. The offsets apply only to
public pensions; recipients of private pensions are not
subject to such penalties.
While these Social Security benefit reductions may have
been intended to curtail payments of windfall benefits to
highly paid individuals, in practice they have had
devastating consequences for low and middle income
public employees. These provisions are the Government
Pension Offset (GPO) and the so-called Windfall Elimination
Provision (WEP). Each of these provisions can drastically
reduce monthly Social Security benefits drastically.
The GPO reduces a Social Security survivor’s benefit by
two-thirds of their public pension that is not covered by
Social Security – wiping out the survivor’s benefit entirely
for many workers. The WEP currently can take
away up to $328 a month of Social Security benefits earned
by a state or local public employee who has contributed to
Social Security for as many as 20 years, and the WEP does
not phase out completely until a worker has 30 years of
covered Social Security employment.
Besides being unfair to those who have paid into Social
Security but are being denied its full benefits, these
provisions have perverse effects. For example, by targeting
pensions of teachers and other school employees, these
Social Security benefit cuts discourage qualified individuals
from entering and staying in the classroom at exactly the
time when our nation faces a severe shortage of qualified
educators.