Rep. Garret Graves, R-Baton Rouge, sponsored legislation to remove provisions in the Social Security law that docked public employees with pensions.
Rep. Garret Graves, R-Baton Rouge, sponsored legislation to remove provisions in the Social Security law that docked public employees with pensions.
WASHINGTON – President Joe Biden plans to sign the Social Security Fairness Act into law on Sunday afternoon, the White House announced Friday night.
The legislation, sponsored by U.S. Rep. Garret Graves, R-Baton Rouge, and Democratic Rep. Abigail Spanberger, of Virginia, repeals two 40-year-old provisions in the Social Security law. The bill cleared its final legislative hurdle in the early morning hours of Dec. 21.
About 94,000 Louisiana employees and retirees from public service jobs — 2.1 million nationwide — lost part or all of their Social Security benefits because of two provisions, the Windfall Elimination Provision and Government Pension Offset. Once signed into law, the provisions will be removed and those public employees will start receiving the money that had been docked from their Social Security benefits.
Some state and municipal governments, including Louisiana’s, did not pay Social Security taxes on the pensions for teachers, police officers, firefighters and other public service workers. Many of those employees held jobs before or after their public service, or worked second jobs — such as teachers often take at night and during the summer — that contributed to Social Security.
The two provisions docked or effectively eliminated their Social Security benefits from those other nonpublic jobs.
The Windfall Elimination Provision, called WEP, reduces Social Security benefits by up to half the pension amount for people receiving pension income from jobs that didn’t contribute Social Security payroll taxes.
The Government Pension Offset, or GPO, reduces benefits for survivors if the spouse had a pension that wasn’t taxed for Social Security. The Social Security benefits can be cut by up to two-thirds of the public employee’s pension.
Both provisions were added to the law in the early 1980s to help shore up ailing Social Security finances.
Email Mark Ballard at mballard@theadvocate.com.
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