[Topspinmo]

Originally Posted by Utah Flyfisher

I get benefits forever because my husband works for the USAF. Civilian. Not enlisted. No potential sacrifice or loss of life and yet here I am set for life because….. 🤷🏻*♀️ I’ve never understood how or why. I’ve been employed FT for over 40 years but the reason I have security is because my husband works for the AF. Why doesn’t my employment history have anything to do with my benefits/security?

His benefits stop upon his death unless have benifits plan that he paid into for you?

[Topspinmo]

Originally Posted by Topspinmo

His benefits stop upon his death unless have benifits plan that he paid into for you?

Civilian employees always get Better deal than enlisted service members has do with numbers and who in charge benifits rules.

[Topspinmo]

Originally Posted by MplsPete

OMG, this makes my head spin. I barely can follow what is being said; So, let me pose a question, and if anyone can answer it I will be grateful.

Let's assume I worked for a branch of government for about 15 years, about 40 years ago. FERS, not CSRS. And let's assume I get a small pension from that, say, 500 a month. I will be starting SS soon, past full retirement age. Will the 500 cause a reduction in my SS? When I die, will this affect my spouse?

Won’t get nothing until you reach retirement age. It shouldn’t because you paid into FURS which separate retirement, you wife will only get pension if you selected survive benifits based on how much you paid into to for 360 months (i think) based on how much she gets. Furs shouldn’t affect her SS be benifits

[Nell57]

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.

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.

If you worked 80 quarters you don’t expect to get two SS checks.

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.

This new bill, which eliminates WEP and GPO, says yes you can collect two separate retirements from the Govt.

This is named the Social Security Fairness Act.
WEP and GPO was only enacted in 15 states. By repealing these punitive laws public employees in all 50 states are now all treated the same.
My husband paid the maximum into Social Security his entire career. He collected SS for two years but sadly died at 67. Because of WEP and GPO I never received another dime, because my pension as a retired teacher was somewhat more than his Social Security. I know many women who stayed home and never worked. When their husbands were alive their household collected two Social Security checks. After his death, the widow collects the larger amount. Now that these acts are repealed, I, too, will receive the widows benefits.
No one will be getting two Social Security checks. As an Ohio teacher, my Ohio pension is through the Ohio State Teachers Retirement System. That is what I paid into and that is where my retirement checks come from. Fire fighters, police officers, and many public servants also receive their pensions from other State Plans. If this household also is fully vested in Social Security then they are entitled to receive a benefit.
This act corrects an injustice to public servants in 15 states. Congress has been working on it since 2003. It is called the
Social Security FAIRNESS Act and was supported by Biden and Trump. Long, long overdue.

[Bill14564]

Originally Posted by talonip

My wife worked as a teacher in Missouri and retired and gets a pension from the state of Missouri. She also worked outside of the teacher Missouri pension system and paid into social security with 40 credits.

That sir is two different govt agency’s. Missouri and federal. The WEP system also restricted her from getting survivor benefits from social security if I were to pass away.

Point is she paid into SS to the max.

I was an airline pilot with a pension. and a 20 year military retiree. Should my military be reduced or eliminated?
Think about it!

Let's think about it this way. Let's say the deductions from your wife's pay as a teacher went to SS instead of to the state agency. She would then be eligible to collect SS retirement benefits on her time as a teacher.

Then she left that job and continued as you wrote, working and contributing to SS again. If fact, she worked enough under this job to qualify again for SS.

Should she be able to collect two SS checks? (If so, I am due for three)

Clearly the answer is no. Her SS benefit would be calculated on the totality of her time paying into SS. She would receive one benefit from SS even though she contributed twice.

So how is the current situation any different? Instead of putting any money at all into SS it was put into a parallel program. Now when her SS benefit is calculated the system looks at the totality of her time paying SS but also takes into consideration the benefit she is receiving from the program that was used IN PLACE OF SS.

She was allowed to avoid paying into SS during that teacher's job because she would be collecting benefits from that program rather than SS. Now that she changed her mind and decided to pay into SS also, the system says fine, collect the benefits IN PLACE OF SS and we'll also allow you to collect SS but only after recalculating for those "IN PLACE OF" benefits.

NOTE: These reductions only apply to pensions received from programs where NO SS WAS PAID.

NOTE 2: These reductions do not apply to most (any?) private pension systems because those systems did not exempt employees from paying SS taxes. (this is consistent with the govt's CSRS and FERS systems. CSRS did not pay into SS and the reductions apply. FERS DOES pay into SS and no reductions apply)

NOTE 3: The WEP system applies to her SS benefits only. Survivor benefits are (were) restricted by GPO. Similar idea though I haven't looked into whether there is an exact parallel with collecting both SS and SS survivor.

[Bill14564]

Originally Posted by Nell57

...

It is called the
Social Security FAIRNESS Act and was supported by Biden and Trump. Long, long overdue.

I give exactly ZERO weight to the name of any act. The only thing that surprises me is that they haven't come up with an eight-word title for that has "FAIRNESS" as an acronym. Names are chosen for marketing purposes.

[Jerry F2]

Originally Posted by CoachKandSportsguy

Senate passes Social Security bill to repeal WEP and GPO

Not sure what this means, other than more people can collect, and that means the insolvency is now approaching sooner.

Lets hope the Congress can fix social security without all the continuing resolutions to fix the debt ceiling and the budget ever increasing spending

good luck to us!

Explain the repeal of WEP and GPO. People who worked as Civil Service Employees...Firefighters, Police, Teachers, USPS and other jobs...paid into Civil Service Pension and not into Social Security...However 2.7 million of those people (the ones people always praise for their job) also worked at other jobs before during or after their Civil Service time and earned the needed 40 quarters to receive a monthly payment. Example: I worked USPS and my "second job" was a company maybe you heard of them U.S. Army. During my career at USPS..I would leave for time to time for training or war. Desert Storm, Somalia, Bosnia and Afghanistan(injured), a year each time. During my times away from USPS, I was not paid by them (understandable) and they listed me as "unavailable for work" and USPS stopped any benefits for my family until my return to work. When I filed for my SS they cut check it half 50% because of my Civil Service Pension. Wait, it gets better. Then a few years later, when my wife (Civil Service Employee) filed for SS, they took 50% from her check ...then they took another 50% because her husband..me..was a Civil Service Retiree. So, she gets $0.00. Thank you for working two or three jobs...Thank you for your service.... Really??? This WEP bill will fix a 40 year wrong (1983) .... People may not like it, but we earned it, this is not a handout. As a four-time Combat Veteran any negative comments about my explanation will prove that "Thank you for your service" has a hollow ring to it.

[GoldenBoy]

Originally Posted by sedwyer

FERS are not affected as they paid into SS. CSRS did not.

If you have questions about Social Security, call the SSA and ask someone who actually has the definitive information. If you have a question about who can fix a garage door in TV, post it here.

[tombpot]

When does it start

[nn0wheremann]

Originally Posted by ElDiabloJoe

Ronald Reagan did two things that I heartily disagree with (with the benefit of hindsight, of course): 1) closed the mental hospitals, and; 2) enacted the WEP and GPO to social security.

Passage of this bill, the Social Security Fairness Act and signature by a president (both Biden and Trump have said they supported the Act) will return fairness to social security by eliminating the WEP and GPO.

Currently, if you earned 40 credits, AND you earned a public pension, they greatly reduced your social security - usually by 70%!! If your benefit was $700, you are getting $145/month simply because you paid into two different systems.

This Act does NOT give people with public pensions double-dipping access to social security UNLESS they also have earned their social security via 40 credits like everyone else.

This Act gives full credit that is due to anyone who worked their full 40 credits - as it should be.

Currently, someone with a government pension, even though they worked 10 years before and 10 years after in the private sector or otherwise worked enough to earn their 40 social security credits, has that social security benefit drastically reduced simply because they also worked in public service. Mostly it's cops, puddle-monkeys, and teachers.

Is it fair if you worked for IBM until you were 35 or 40, and then went and joined a police department for 20 years until you were 55 or 60 to only get what you earned from the police force, but get 70% of your social security benefit taken because you did that?

The other thing it does is protect mostly women. If your spouse worked for a city, county, state or the feds, your spousal benefit from their social security would be normally be negative or zero dollars. You did not get a thing even though the spouse earned their 40 credits.

This Act gives the rightfully earned fair benefit to those who earned it, regardless of whatever other career path they may have chosen over time.

On GPO, you are entirely correct. As to WEP, it is a bit more complicated. Social Security benefits are “weighted “ so that low income wage earners get a higher replacement ratio for earnings lost due to retirement than a high income earner. In assessing the return ratio someone who has a short record of covered earnings, but enough to be insured, is indistinguishable from one who had a long record of low wages. Both get the higher weighted replacement ratio. The replacement ratio varies from 50% for someone who worked for minimum wage for their working lifetime, to 29% for someone with maximum covered earnings for a lifetime.
Where WEP went wrong was for the people who worked for both covered and exempt earnings, but for low wages in both. They got screwed.

[retiredguy123]

Originally Posted by Topspinmo

You say that cause you wasn’t military retirees. Your CRS benifits only because you never paid in to SS. Military retirement has paid into SS from day on. If that retiree goes to work for federal government they start over, very few get GS15 position after retirement unless they are high ranking officers. Which IMO shouldn’t be allowed do to there position and control over contracts (which opens up another hold can or worms). Even then they are under new retirement called furs when they pay into and still pay SS. Military retirement has nothing to do with other two, it’s separate. Now survives benefits for military, they pay for that out of their military retirement. Nobody was holding anybody back from joining military. It was open to everyone. But some can’t take orders or willing to move at drop of hat.

In D.C., it is very common for a LT Colonel or above to line up a GS-15 civilian position before they retire, and step right into that position immediately. In some offices, it is a waste of time for a career civilian employee to even apply for the position because the office is managed and controlled by military retirees.

[Nell57]

Originally Posted by retiredguy123

Personally, I think the spouse benefit should be eliminated. If someone doesn't pay into the system, they should not get a check. The way the current system works is that a worker can be married 4 or 5 times, and as long as each marriage lasts at least 10 years, all of the ex-spouses are entitled to a check, even if they never worked at all. Some ex-spouses, who never worked, are receiving a check that is higher than a fulltime worker who worked for 30 or 40 years.

You’ve got that right.
I have a good friend,Mary, who never worked a day in her life. She receives SS from her ex-spouse. He married two more times. When George died all three wives received an increase in benefits, to George’s amount.
Mary’s next relationship was with Bill. He was a retired teacher, and received his benefits through the State Teachers Retirement Plan. Although they weren’t married, Bill named Mary as beneficiary.
Upon his death, she began receiving his full amount.
I had a 33 year career as a teacher, and because of WEP/GPO I could not collect my deceased husbands SS. Mary never worked a day in her life, she collects two monthly checks, and her retirement income is more than double of mine.

This is some of the inequality that the SS Fairness Act addresses.

[Carlsondm]

Are you sure you were fully vested in your retirement plan after 8 years? More than 10 was required for us.

[Bill14564]

Originally Posted by ElDiabloJoe

...

They're just not getting what they deserve because they chose to work hard, long hours, and extra jobs to earn additional benefits. They're being punished simply because those jobs were in the public sector, public service and not for a profit-driven corporation.

...

I worked hard, long hours, and extra jobs to earn additional quarters - who do I talk to about receiving the three SS checks that I have jobs and quarters for?

Those affected by WEP and GPO are not being "punished" at all, they are/were simply NOT being rewarded for avoiding SS taxes for half of their careers. They were not chosen simply because those jobs were in the public sector, public service and not for a profit-driven company. They were chosen because the DID NOT PAY SS taxes in those jobs.

One of my jobs was in the public sector, public service and not for a profit-driven company. I still receive both a pension and (soon) SS retirement. This is the case because I DID PAY SS taxes in that job.

[GATORBILL66]

EXAMPLE: Here is what happened to me. I worked in the private sector before working for the postal service. Once I turned 66, i began collecting my full social security benefits. Once I retired from the postal service I was told they would be cutting my social security benefits by 50%. Now with new bill that passed last week I will be collecting my full social security benefits finally after so many years of only getting half of what I actually earned through social security.