Blog
February 05, 2022
REPEAL THE WEP/GPO
From Our Houston Chapter President
We are closer than ever before to repeal laws enacted under Reagan and others that has teachers, policemen, firemen and other public servants subsidize SS by having their EARNED benefits reduced because they wanted to help the public.
Feb 14-22, 2022 there is a CALL TO ACTION for everyone to call Washington and put pressure on the people who WORK FOR US to sign on as co-sponsors of HB 82 and HB 5723.
Two legislative bills; H.R. 82- Rodney Davis (IL) and H.R. 5723- John Larson (CT), have been introduced that call for repeal of both the Windfall Elimination Provision (WEP) and Government Pension Offset (GPO).
The WEP and GPO are earned benefits that retirees have paid for. The Windfall Elimination Provision (WEP) penalizes earners who have had two jobs, one where they paid into Social Security taxes and one in which they paid into a public pension. These pensions were earned separately and differently from Social Security, yet they are used to reduce the amount of Social Security benefits that a worker receives during retirement.
One of the harshest inequities of these two offsets is the Government Pension Offset (GPO) which creates an environment that takes earned benefits, primarily from women, to pay for benefits, not all of which are earned that are primarily for men. Retired educators suffer devastating financial loss when their spouse dies, and they lose their survivor benefit paid for by their spouse.
Now is the time to take action to repeal these two unjust penalties. If you have co-sponsored H.R. 82 and H.R. 5723 we thank you, if you haven’t we urge you to co-sponsor H.R. 82 and H.R. 5723 to move this issue to the forefront.
Our Vote Is Our Voice! Seniors Refuse to Be Silenced!