The Senate Finance Subcommittee on Social Security recently held a hearing on bipartisan legislation sponsored by U.S. Senators Susan Collins and Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) that would protect the retirement benefits of public servants such as school teachers, firefighters, and police officers. In a related event on Capitol Hill earlier, Senator Collins was joined by Senator John Kerry (D-MA) and members of the National Education Association to discuss the importance of this legislation.
The bill, the Social Security Fairness Act, would repeal both the windfall elimination provision (WEP) and the government pension offset (GPO), which unfairly penalizes individuals holding jobs in public service when they retire.
During the recent hearing on the legislation at which Senator Collins testified in support of her legislation, she explained, “The WEP and GPO have enormous financial implications for many of our teachers, police officers, firefighters, postal workers, and other public employees. Given the important responsibilities, it is simply unfair to penalize them when it comes to their Social Security benefits. These public servants—or their spouses—have all paid taxes into the Social Security system. So have their employers. They have worked long enough to earn their Social Security benefits. Yet, because of the GPO and WEP, they are unable to receive all of the Social Security benefits to which they would otherwise be entitled.”
Senator Collins further explained that GPO and WEP hit some states harder than others. Maine, for example, has a state retirement plan that lacks a Social Security component, so Maine retirees are particularly hard hit.
Almost one million retired public employees across the nation have already been harmed by these provisions, 70 percent of whom are women. She cited the example of Julia Worcester of Columbia, Maine, who at age 77 is still substitute teaching because of a penalty in her Social Security benefits that makes it difficult for her to make ends meet.
The legislation has been endorsed by the National Education Association and the National Active and Retired Federal Employees Association.
For Video of Senator Collins' Testimony: CLICK HERE