Social Security is a promise that one generation makes to another. But two provisions in Social Security – the Government Pension Offset and the Windfall Elimination Provision – place an unfair penalty on the benefits of some retired teachers, law enforcement officers and other public servants.

Government Regulations Should NOT Punish Public Servants

The Government Pension Offset reduces Social Security spousal or survivor benefits by two-thirds of the individual's public pension. Thus, a teacher who receives a public pension for a job not covered by Social Security will lose much or all of any spousal survivor benefits she would expect to collect based on her husband's earnings. 

Nationwide, more than one-third of teachers and education employees, and more than one-fifth of other public employees, are not covered by Social Security, and are, therefore, subject to the Government Pension Offset.  In Texas alone, approximately 28,000 spouses are impacted and 16,000 widows have lost an average of $3,600 a year due to the GPO.  With income fixed and everything else rising, the cost of healthcare, gas, and property taxes – this loss can mean a real difference.

 

The Windfall Elimination Provision reduces the earned Social Security benefits of individuals who have worked in both a Social Security covered and a non-Social Security covered job. The WEP penalizes individuals who move into teaching from private sector employment, or who seek to supplement their public wages by working part-time or in the summer months in jobs covered by Social Security.

We Must Have Bipartisan Support for Social Security Fairness

The people who spent their careers teaching our children and grandchildren, or who risked their lives to keeping our homes and neighborhoods safe, deserve better than a pittance of a pension. Penalties such as the WEP and GPO impact our education system long before our teachers retire. These penalties make it difficult to retain good teachers, and even harder to recruit talented members of other professions to pursue a second career in teaching.

The House version of the Social Security Fairness Act (H.R. 82), which would completely repeal the Government Pension Offset and Windfall Elimination Provision, has now garnered the support of 339 bipartisan cosponsors. Although the cost of full repeal is high, that is the measure of the injustice currently being inflicted on our retired teachers and other public servants.

Contact Me

Readers who wish to write me about Social Security or other federal issues can send a note by mail to 300 E. 8th Street, Suite 763, Austin 78701, by e-mail to lloyd.doggett@mail.house.gov, or through my website at www.house.gov/doggett.

U.S. Congressman Lloyd Doggett is currently serving his seventh term in the U.S. House of Representatives where he is a senior member of the Ways & Means Committee, the House Budget Committee, and the Joint Economic Committee. He and his wife Libby have two daughters – one a physician and one a teacher, and two granddaughters.