Media Advisory: Public Servants to Visit Capitol Dec. 14 to Exhort Congress to Act on Social Security WEP Reform Before Congress Ends
Date Posted: 12/08/2022
Media invited to south steps of U.S. Capitol at 10 a.m. ET Dec. 14 for briefing/Q&A
| Who: | Retired and active public servants representing the Association of Texas Professional Educators, Mass Retirees, and Texas Retired Teachers Association | |||
| What: | Media briefing/Q&A opportunity on inequity of the Windfall Elimination Provision (WEP), which reduces the Social Security benefits of retired public servants, including teachers, firefighters, and police officers. | |||
| When: | 10 a.m. ET Wednesday, Dec. 14 | |||
| Where: | South steps of the U.S. Capitol | |||
| Why: |
The WEP and Government Pension Offset (GPO) provisions in federal law harm the retirement security of over 2 million public workers by arbitrarily reducing their Social Security benefits. Congressional leaders have promised to pass a solution to address these Social Security provisions. H.R. 82, a bill with 305 cosponsors, would fully repeal the WEP and GPO. A recent committee markup demonstrated the lack of leadership support to move that bill forward, but it also showcased broad support for a fix, with many committee members calling for quick passage of a bipartisan alternative. Those calls did not go unnoticed. Our groups heard clearly that bipartisan legislation, at least addressing the WEP, is not only possible but also should be put to a vote this year. Indeed, both House Ways & Means Chairman Richard Neal (D-MA) and ranking member Congressman Kevin Brady (R-TX) have pledged in press statements and at the September committee markup to continue negotiating a bipartisan WEP reform agreement that could be included in a year-end tax extender or omnibus spending package. As the 2022 clock ticks down, stakeholder urgency grows. Brady, a tireless advocate for fixing the WEP since 2004, is retiring, and the House majority will flip to Republican control in January. Neal, also an advocate for a fair and equitable solution to the WEP, will no longer chair the Ways and Means Committee, and stakeholders simply do not want to see this moment of cooperative work and focus on such an important issue squandered. Day-of media contacts:
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This is the retirement fund that we EARNED working diligently for the public. Please repeal the WEP & GPO
Please repeal the WEP &GPO. ITS THE HONEST thing to do for those that put moneys in soc security for years and then chose a different path. It’s our money that we put in so at least give us back what we put in if u not going to repeal! Please Consider making a huge move that would help Many hard working citizens!
As many others have commented, a FULL REPEAL of WEP and GPO is NECESSARY! My husband passed away from cancer before ever receiving a cent of his own Social Security. As a retired public school teacher, I receive none of his and mine is reduced to a little over $100. The loss of that second salary in the household is also a huge factor. Please understand and show public servants the respect we deserve.
After 39 years of empty promises and repeatedly kicking the can down the road, WEP/GPO needs to finally be repealed. Watered down compromise bills are an insult to the public servants affected and to the justice they deserve.
Please repeal WEP & GPO by supporting H.R. 82 and including it in the end-of-year omnibus spending package. These heinous provisions impact approximately 2.7 million retirees. Social security amounts can be reduced by 50% These are penalties on monies rightfully earned often in non-pension work! The impacted retirees live in every state across the nation and impacted, as well, are international workers. Public servants deserve better. Teachers, and educational paraprofessionals, police, firefighters...protective service workers, and more are among those suffering under these provisions. In addition, the GPO disallows widows and widowers from the option of collecting a deceased spouse''s higher benefit. It especially impacts women.
Jack Jones & Jill Smith each work for 20 years. Both pay equally into the social security system. Jill works for 10 more years as a teacher. Jack retires and gets his full social security benefit. Jill retires and loses a percentage of her social security benefit. More than 2 million Jill’s have been penalized since 1983 because of their public service and the flawed WEP( Windfall Elimination Provision). Less than full repeal is not acceptable.
I paid into to Social security working jobs before my government job. I took a job in the government to serve my county without having to join the military. No one told me that my social security from the private sector would be reduced because I worked and retired from the government. How unfair. Please repel the WEP and GPO.
Please do away with the Windfall, I worked for the school system true but I have worked and also have paid into Social Security for years. At 66 yrs old I am still working and paying into Social Security. I only draw $194. a month from Social Security. I should be entitled to ALL of my SS instead I am penalized. I rightfully am paying into Social Security and I should Rightfully draw the Full amount owed to me!!
Please repeal WEP and GPO. As a second career teacher my earned SS is essential wages needed for my retirement. I earned it. Respectfully, Mary Lindinger
This affects my SS benefit by taking 2/3 of my SS benefit. The sad thing is no one is told of this until retirement time and retirees depended on this just to scrape by in our old age!
I worked in the US and in Europe and my US pension is cut in half because I receive a small amount from another country. Repeal the WEP, we have paid for our Social Security, WEP is a deal-breaker!
If you can fund Teamster pensions you can fund public servants who earned benefits. I worked two jobs to support my family. How will I survive when my husband dies and I lose his pension and get reduced survivor benefits?
There should be no compromise to repeal WEP GPO. We retired seniors deserve the SS benefits that were deducted from our checks. Full repeal is needed
I am asking for a repeal of the WEP and the GPO it is unfair to penalize people that paid in their money to have a better retirement and instead penalize them.
Full Repeal of WEP is essential. How can the government bail out the Teamster''s union (last week) with 36 billion of our tax money and bail out union pensions (past July) with 90 billion tax dollars and not let us receive ALL of out earned benefits from Social Security? This is unjust! I paid into Social Security for 20 years and was NEVER told by SS or my employer that my SS would be effected if I went from the private to the public sector! Horribly unfair.
We need a complete repeal of WEP and GPO as HR82 does. Reform only kicks the can down the road and still people are not getting their rightfully earned benefits. Brady’s bill does nothing for GPO. GPO is an unfair law that targets elderly women. Spouses paid into SS and spousal death benefits their whole lives, yet those benefits are denied to a group of women whose only difference was they worked in public service. Divorced women/women whom never paid into SS qualify for spousal death benefits. How can we deny women just because they worked in public service? Make sure a full repeal of GPO/WEP is included in omnibus!
I urge all congressmen & women to support this bill. Many retired educators aren’t getting the benefits we paid into. It’s extremely unfair that we aren’t eligible to collect our full benefits.
Please repeal WEP and GPO. This is so unfair to penalize us because we work for the State . It would be greatly appreciated if y’all would repeal it.
I do not agree with Brady’s approach. A FULL repeal of WEP and GPO are NECESSARY! I need my full benefits, not the pittance this will offer just to shut us up. Please don’t disrespect us any more.
As a current retiree I worked for over 45 years. 26 of which paid into Social Security. My monthly SSI amount has been decreased by $600 so that my monthly pension and monthly SS amount now total a whopping $1600! Barely a windfall! Please repeal WEP and GPO and stop punishing hard working elders that paid into a system that is now rigged against us!! We need your help now!!
It is time to finally correct this injustice! Please repeal WEP and GPO and allow all public servants to receive benefits they earned during many long years of work.
Please Repeal , All we are asking for is what we earned , I am still working at 70 with no end in sight.
Please fully repeal HR-82 the WEP bill. As an American taxpayer and Veteran I never believed I would be penalized because I served my nation as Civil Service Employee. How can this be fair to American Citizens that serve our government? Respectfully,
Please repeal WEP and GPO!! I was a public school teacher and for the majority of my career I worked two jobs to make ends meet. Do the right thing and pay the public school employees what they are due. I have read and studied this for years and cannot find anyway this was ever fair. I’m paying in to social security now knowing I won’t receive a benefit from SS. Not one thing is right about that!!!
Please repeal the WEP and GPO my husband passed in 2015 I am civil service retiree do not get none of his social security. Please help
Please #repealWEP &repealGPO. Inflation is killing us. I retired a year ago and had to go back to work to pay bills. Please Help
Only a FULL repeal of WEP and GPO. How can you possibly support anything less for your public servants. Do you realize that I am penalized and not able to get my full social security benefits only due to the fact that I was a public school special education teacher !
My husband and I were married 43 years before he succumbed to cancer. He was a hard worker who contributed to Social Security for 50 years. How does it make since that I, as his widow, am not entitled to his contributions? This makes no sense. His money is just gone. It feels criminal. This is a wrong that needs to be made right. Please repeal GPO for all widows who are affected by this.
Please repeal the WEP and GPO. Some of us changed careers and will never realize a full pension. I worked in private industry for many years before becoming a public school teacher. My pension will be low and my social security reduced - not fair - I contributed to both!!! You are hurting your public servants!!
To the powers that be, I ask kindly to repeal WEP and GPO. We simply want our full benefits based on what WE DID PAY IN OVER OUR WORKING YEARS.
After years of paying SS we deserve a complete repeal not a pathetic attempt to placate both sides.
Please repeal WEP an GPO it is unfair that we had to pay into SS an when we are old enough to start drawing a pension it is cut in half
Some of us, myself included, were low paid support staff and our pensions are also low.
Full Repeal (HR82) NOT Reform. The Brady BiIl 5834 totally ignores GPO!
My husband paid into Social Security for 45 years. He recently passed away but I do not get spousal survivors benefits because my school system Did not participate in SS. My monthly income has been reduced since he passed away. Please repeal GPO and WEP.
Please repeal WEP and GPO. In a time when school staff are leaving education in droves, the negative financial consequences of GPO and WEP (for those who have paid into Social Security), also adds to folks leaving education. Please help correct this very challenging situation.
Please, repeal WEP and GPO. I thought for 38 years, and paid into Social Security for 17 of those years, as well as paying in before I started teaching.
Support this bill! Do what your constituents are asking you to do in representing THEM!!! Former public service workers, fire fighters, police officers, educators and more should be entitled to what they worked for!
Please repeal WEP & GPO. Please understand this is the retirement fund that we EARNED working diligently for the public. I served and taught students with disabilities for 20 years and made a difference. Now it is time for you to make a difference in my life by repealing the WEP!
Brady and Neal both have played this for many years using WEP reform to gather votes. Yet nothing is never done reform or otherwise. If this is their last shot they better make it count. But in the end a full repeal of WEP/GPO is the only fair thing to do!
I urge all congressmen & women to support this bill. Many retired educators aren’t getting the benefits we paid into. It’s extremely unfair that we aren’t eligible to collect our full benefits.
As a retiree like many, many others we are only asking our representatives to recognize and reform WEP so that we might receive what we have earned and should be entitled to.
Please repeal WEP and GPO. It will be an act of compassion. Respectfully, Dave Citrone
This definitely affects my retirement.