Quote:
Originally Posted by ElDiabloJoe
Quote:
Originally Posted by Bill14564
It’s not quite that simple, right?
If you earned a pension at a job, quit for a while, then returned for enough time to qualify for a pension you wouldn’t put really expect to collect two pensions from the same company. No, but if you earned a pension at one job (e.g., IBM), then worked for enough time to qualify for a pension from a completely different company (e.g., Delta Airlines), you'd be entitled to both earned pensions, right?
If you and your spouse both qualify for SS benefits you don’t expect to collect both your SS plus spouse or widow(er) benefits. No, you qualify for EITHER your benefit, or the spousal benefit, not both.
If you worked 80 quarters you don’t expect to get two SS checks. Now you're just being silly. If I worked 40 quarters AND my wife worked 40 quarters, we should still get two social security checks, right? Or since it is one household you think we should only get the one?
The thought behind the WEP and GPO seems to be that the Govt pays two types of retirement, a pension for some and SS for others, and you cannot collect two retirements from the same source. IF your pension paid into SS (most don't), then YES, you paid into SS AND your city pension. You deserve both that you paid into.
This new bill, which eliminates WEP and GPO, says yes you can collect two separate retirements from the Govt.ONLY if you earned the government pension AND earned your 40 credits with non-public service employment.
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1. But those affected by WEP are not collecting benefits from two separate providers, both the govt pension and the SS payments are from the govt. In fact, the govt pension was a program used instead of SS which is why the employee didn’t pay into SS under that program. The new law says to forget that, disregard that the pension was to replace SS, and write checks from the Fed Treasury for both programs.
2. Right, you don’t expect to collect twice from the same retirement source.
3. Two individuals, two qualifying careers, two checks. But that isn’t what I described and that isn’t what WEP or GPO applied to.
4. WEP and GPO saw that differently. They saw a single individual qualifying for govt benefits two ways but from the same govt and the same treasury. Both were intended to provide full retirement benefits to a single employee so it made no sense to pay double retirement benefits to that single employee.
5. Obviously. Otherwise, neither WEP nor GPO would apply.
NOTE: I’m not against the elimination of these two reductions, I just see the logic behind them.