WASHINGTON, DC – Public servants in Louisiana (teachers, police, firefighters, etc.) are some of the most impacted victims of the infamous Windfall Elimination Penalty (WEP) and the Government Pension Offset (GPO) – a 1980s-era flawed federal law that can result in massive cuts – including total elimination – to their Social Security payments. Show The struggle to repeal WEP and GPO is decades old. After years of negotiations, legislation U.S. Congressman Garret Graves co-authored – H.R. 82, the Social Security Fairness Act of 2021 – to fix these problems has reached over 290 cosponsors – triggering action to force Speaker Pelosi to schedule the bill for a vote before the U.S. House of Representatives. The bill would fix this penalty, which punishes tens of thousands of Louisiana public servants. If this legislation passes, Louisiana’s dedicated public servants and their spouses or survivors will receive the full retirement benefits they deserve, including those who have already retired. Graves released the following statement: “The last thing in the world we need to be doing now is defunding teachers, firefighters, police officers and other local and state public servants. The far majority are underpaid. No one goes into public service to make big money. They do it to make a big difference. Teachers, police, firefighters, and countless local and state public servants are the crucial scaffolding of our society. The WEP and GPO are severe penalties that defund public servants of much of their lifetime of retirement earnings. After more than 40 years of efforts to change this law, we’ve reached a high-water mark of 293 cosponsors to our bill. Today’s achievement is decades in the making and has remained a top priority of mine and thousands of Louisiana public servants. I am proud to see the effort from a bipartisan coalition of members, advocates, and retirees is going to fix this broken policy because it unfairly punishes our public servants. I have promised folks at home we would not stop until the leadership of the U.S. House brings the bill to the floor for a vote. We have rallied support for years to break through this logjam and get this overdue legislation enacted into law. It’s time to make it right for the countless teachers, police officers, firefighters, emergency responders, and all the local and state public servants who are being wrongly penalized under current law.” ### The Windfall Elimination Provision (WEP) is a formula that can reduce the size of your Social Security retirement or disability benefit if you receive a pension from a job in which you did not pay Social Security taxes. Such a “non-covered” pension might have been earned, for instance, by work for a state or local government agency that does not participate in
FICA payroll-tax withholding. If you collect such a pension, the WEP could reduce your Social Security benefit by up to half of the amount of your pension. (By law, it cannot eliminate your benefit entirely; Social Security sets maximums on the dollar amount, as detailed in its WEP Chart.) About 1.9 million people, or 3 percent of Social Security beneficiaries, are affected by the provision, according to a November 2021 report by the Congressional Research Service. Congress approved the Windfall Elimination Provision in 1983 as part of a larger package of Social Security reforms (including an increase in the full retirement age). The intent was to remove an unintended advantage for workers who collect non-covered pensions (typically from government employment) but also did some "covered" work in jobs that paid into Social Security. Because relatively little of their lifetime income was reflected in their Social Security earnings records, these workers benefited from Social Security’s progressive formula for figuring retirement payments, which is weighted in favor of low-wage workers. In other words, someone who collected a healthy government salary for decades received the same advantage in Social Security calculations as did a longtime low-income worker. The WEP eliminates this advantage by tweaking the formula for people also receiving non-covered pensions in a way that reduces their Social Security retirement benefits. Keep in mind
Updated December 27, 2021 What is the difference between the Windfall Elimination Provision and the Government Pension Offset?The WEP can reduce your benefit payment by as much as half the amount of your pension. The Government Pension Offset applies if you get a government pension plus spousal or survivor benefits from Social Security. Your benefits will be reduced by up to two-thirds of your pension amount.
Can you collect both a government pension and Social Security?If two-thirds of your government pension is more than your Social Security benefit, your benefit could be reduced to zero. If you take your government pension annuity in a lump sum, Social Security will calculate the reduction as if you chose to get monthly benefit payments from your government work.
How much is Social Security reduced if you have a government pension?It reduces their Social Security benefits in some cases. If you receive a pension from a government job but did not pay Social Security taxes while you had the job, we'll reduce your Social Security spouse, widow, or widower benefits by two-thirds of the amount of your government pension.
Does WEP affect FERS retirement?The GPO will not apply to CSRS Offset and FERS Transferees once they have worked for 5 years under CSRS Offset or FERS. The Windfall Elimination Provision does not eliminate a Social Security benefit to which you are entitled on your own earnings record. It will, however, generally drastically reduce it.
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Social security windfall elimination provision and government pension offset
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