Pressure is mounting to force Congress to act on repealing the Windfall Elimination Provision (WEP) and Government Pension Offset (GPO), after years of effort from public union members, leaders and allies.
Two U.S. Representatives – Garret Graves, R-Louisiana, and Abigail Spanberger, D-Virginia, – on Sept. 10 filed a discharge petition that would force a House vote on a bill that would repeal both provisions, which have greatly reduced the Social Security benefits of many educators, including in Massachusetts.
Their effort succeeded, getting a majority of House members to sign on in support by early October. A vote in the House is expected to be called sometime following the November election. The House is in recess until Nov. 12.
Graves and Spanberger introduced the Social Security Fairness Act in January 2023, which would repeal both the WEP and GPO. Their bill enjoys broad bipartisan support, with 326 sponsors to date in the House. Despite this, it has never come to the floor for a vote.
MTA President Max Page and Vice President Deb McCarthy lobbied on behalf of the bill as part of the NEA’s Super Week, which took place in Washington, D.C. in late September. Educators who paid into Social Security through second jobs or through previous careers have been penalized for far too long, Page said, prior to leaving.
“At a time when we need more people to enter the profession, the two provisions are undermining those efforts,” Page said, by reducing Social Security benefits earned for previous and part-time work. And many educators, particularly women, are working into their 60s and even 70s because they have lost survivor benefits from their spouses, Page said.
“Both WEP and GPO are deeply unjust and are preventing many retired educators and public employees from being able to pay their bills in retirement,” Page said. “Congress needs to move quickly to restore fairness to retirees.”
The reduction in Social Security benefits comes as a shock to many retired members, some of whom said they only learned of the provisions when they retired from education. Social Security statements that previously were mailed to Americans didn’t calculate the impact on estimated earnings.
The Windfall Elimination Provision uses a complex formula to reduce the retirement benefit for retirees who have earned a government pension, but who didn’t have Social Security taxes withheld at that job. Because Massachusetts public educators do not participate in Social Security, this affects any income they paid into Social Security through a part-time or summer job, or particularly if they entered education as a “career switcher” from private industry.
The GPO program can reduce spousal or survival income for people who are eligible for those benefits through Social Security, and who also earned a government pension.
Some educators are affected by both provisions.
WEP and GPO affect educators in 15 states where Social Security taxes are not deducted from educators’ salaries. The NEA estimates that WEP affects almost 90,000 people in Massachusetts, including retired educators and other public employees. GPO affects almost 9,000 people.
If approved and signed into law, the Social Security Fairness Act, which also has a companion bill introduced in the Senate, would repeal the WEP and GPO and affect payments made after December 2023.
For more information about the effort, please visit the NEA page on GPO and WEP.
