Home ::
If you are a school employee who does not pay into Social Security, any Social Security benefits to which you are entitled through your spouse are subject to reduction. If you receive a government pension (such as TRS), the Government Pension Offset (GPO) will reduce your spousal Social Security benefit by 2/3 of your TRS pension.
If you have participated in Social Security long enough to earn benefits, those benefits may be reduced by the Windfall Elimination Provision (WEP). If you are not paying into Social Security through your school district, the WEP will offset a portion (no more than half) of your Social Security benefit.
In June, House Ways and Means Committee Chair Charles Rangel (D-NY) asked the chair of the Social Security subcommittee, Howard Berman (D-CA), to hold a hearing on HR 82, the federal legislation that would repeal the GPO and the WEP.
In an unexpected move, the Senate Finance Committee’s Subcommittee on Social Security, Pensions, and Family Policy held a hearing on the issue in November, while the House committee has yet to announce a date for its hearing (originally anticipated sometime in 2007).
Sen. John Kerry (D-MA), chair of the subcommittee and co-sponsor of S 206, the Senate legislation that would repeal the GPO and WEP, expressed strong support for addressing the inequities of the two offsets that so significantly affect many public servants. Kerry’s opening statement noted: “These provisions often leave individuals with less of a benefit than they had counted on for retirement. I agree with House Ways and Means Chairman Rangel that the Windfall Elimination Provision and the Government Pension Offset provisions are ‘blunt instruments.’ These provisions often treat public sector employees worse than private sector employees. And most troubling of all, at a time when we need their service the most, they discourage people like teachers and firemen from staying in public service.”
The subcommittee heard from witnesses that included a retired public school teacher from Massachusetts and a public employee representative from California, as well as an employee of the U.S. Government Accounting Office (GAO), who defended the rationale behind the two offsets and expressed concerns about the legislation that would repeal them. According to the GAO spokesperson, repealing the GPO and WEP would cost more than $80 billion over a 10-year period and would increase the Social Security fund’s long-range deficit.
TCTA presented testimony to the committee emphasizing the harmful effect these provisions have had on Texas teachers and other public employees. We will keep members posted on any action taken on S 206 or other Social Security legislation.
Web posted: 11/29/07 from The Classroom Teacher, Winter 2007
