Update -- The Social Security Fairness Act

Attention AFSCME Retirees:

We have an important update on our efforts to repeal GPO/WEP.  Senator Sherrod Brown (OH) is circulating the Social Security Fairness Act for co-sponsors in the 117th Congress.  The Social Security Fairness Act will repeal the Windfall Elimination Provision (WEP) and the Government Pension Offset (GPO). 

You can help generate momentum for this bill by emailing or calling your Senator’s office and asking them to join as an original co-sponsor.  

WEP, which affects approximately 1.9 million individuals nationwide, reduces the Social Security benefits of retirees that both receive a pension from working in a non-covered Social Security job and for working less than 30 years in a covered Social Security job. Using a modified Social Security formula, SSA drastically cuts the percentage a retiree receives from the first $996 (adjusted annually) of Average Indexed Monthly Earnings (AIME) from 90 percent to 40 percent.  

GPO, which affects over 700,000 Social Security beneficiaries, applies to those receiving Social Security spousal or widow(er)’s benefits. Individuals that fall under this provision are subject to a 2/3 reduction in their Social Security spousal or widow(er)’s benefits.  

These two unfair policies primarily affect state and local government retirees. Public service should never lead to draconian cuts in Social Security benefits. This bipartisan bill would make this right for teachers, first responders, and other public sector workers that have rightfully earned their Social Security benefits. 

Please take a quick moment to email or call your Senator’s office today and ask them to join the Social Security Fairness Act as an original co-sponsor. The deadline to become an original co-sponsor is April 21. So please call today and ask your Senators to co-sponsor Sen. Brown’s GPO/WEP repeal bill (a list of co-sponsors from the Bill in the last Congress is below).

We will be in touch again after the bill is  formally  introduced. 

In solidarity, 
Ann 

Cosponsors in the 116th (the last) Congress : Baldwin, Leahy, Whitehouse, Casey, Hassan, Harris, Udall, Reed, King, Sanders, Warren, Menendez, Booker, Murray, Duckworth, Van Hollen, Klobuchar, Markey, Gillibrand, Hirono, Murphy, Cortez Masto, Tester, Merkley, Feinstein, Sinema, Stabenow, Peters, Smith, Rosen, Durbin, Bennet, Collins, Murkowski, Boozman, Kennedy, and Cassidy  

Ann Widger

Director, AFSCME Retirees

[see link to the bill below]