I work two jobs, as a nurse at the hospital and as a public school nurse. ^6 hours a week and I have the varicose veins to prove it. I earned my retirement. If I worked less I would be rewarded more?! What were the politicians thinking, or should I ask what were they smoking?
Congress just allowed FEMA overpayments to Katrina victims to be waived. How about waiving the unfair lifetime penalties of WEP and sign HR 235 and S 484 into law.
I worked for 20 years paying in SS. then went back to school to get a teaching degree In Special Education. I will retire from teaching in 4 years at age 62 with 19 years of service and will get teacher retriement of $1500.00 a month (I work in Missouri). I checked with the SS office and because of WEP I will get $0.00 SS. This makes me SICK to my stomach. I will be paying on student loans over $1000.00 a month for several years. I was hoping SS would cover part of my student loan payments. Why doesn't Congress understand this situation and DO something about it. I paid MY money indo SS that I earned working below min. wage, min. wage, and barely above min. wage jobs for 20 years. PLAEASE repeal this law!
Worked 25 years for Federal Government, took reduced pension, working in SS covered job paying lots for 13 years and can't collect. Then let me keep that money to pay for my expensive health insurance premiums and medicines. Please do the right thing and let me and others have what they earned and deserved or I will have to move in with you because I won't be able to live on my small pension.
I WORKED MANY YEARS BEFORE I WORKED FOR THE STATE OF LA.. I AM NOW PERMANENTLY DISABLED NOW,WITH THE SMALL INCOME I GET NOW , IT WOULD HELP ME GREATLY IF I COULD GET MY SOCIAL SECURITY WITHOUT BEING PENALIZED.
A President that had
alsheimer desease signed this unfair law pushed on him by some very unfair legislatures that were undermining seniors that work for a state. Seems to me that the Ways & Means Committee could at least get it to Congress after the asking of the appeal for decades. I am a 70 year old senior that cannot retire due to the unfiar WEP law. I ask that the Committee due the job we have ask for and get this appeal through - for Gods Sakes!
We are crippling ourselves working due to this unfair cut in our Social Security and at the same time taking a job away from a younger person...so unfair - May the Life Giver strike those that see only themselves for profit and not help the elderly so much in need
Worked 30 yrs in construction, due to economy had to switch careers. After investing in added education I now am ready to teach. Due to age I will only teach 10 yrs and now find out my SS is in jeopardy...HOW UNFAIR!!!! for dedicated people!!!!!!!
Worked half of my career and paid into Social Security. Teachers were needed so I changed career to teach. I only got to work 10 years as a teacher - not long enough to get a full retirement. Now I find that they want a large part of my Social Security benefits if I receive Teachers Retirement benefits. I am 67 and cannot afford to retire if my social security benefits are reduced. Please help.
I worked for city of cinti for 31 years and I work part time for 25 years I only get $88.00 per month it is not fair to any one to work and not receive whar you should.
AGAIN I ASK, "WHAT WOULD JESUS DO,"? WHAT RIGHTFULLY BELONGS TO SOMEONE, EXPECIALLY AFTER EARNING IT; SHOULD NOT BE STOLEN OR WITHHELD FROM THEM! DO UNTO OTHERS AS YOU WOULD HAVE THEM DO UNTO YOU!!! AMEN!!!
I worked and paid SS the quarters necessary for full SS benefits, but because I was later a school teacher I get only $227 dollars a month of SS benefits and the rest of my benefits are unfairly withheld from me.
We are facing the effects of this unfair law as my husband retires from his blue collar job. He spent about fifteen years under SS and it is so unfair to see that money stolen from our retirement funds. Why is this allowed in only 13 states? Where is the economic justice in this law?
Why am I being penalized because I retired from a city government, am a widow and cannot get my husband of 35 years social security. I previously put into social security for 22 years and get 40 % of mine.
Too much time is passing; too many teachers and other public service employees are at or nearing the point of retirement. Take action on this Act so these Americans who have served in valuable vocations will not be deprived of benefits they deserve.
If the law to offset the CSRS & Railroad pensions was passed because Congress assumed all of those people would draw large pensions, they were mistaken. Also, it doesn't make any sense that an individual can make any amount of money per year and still draw Social Security, when they are full age. That is ONE reason why I am still working, because I Iam under the CSRS system, and my retirement will be meager. But whatever the case, I paid in Social Security for several years, and I am entitled to that money.
When the Social Security Act was passed in 1935 Roosevelt said that the payroll contributions gave contributors a "legal, moral, and political right to collect their pensions and unemployment benefits." The Windfall Act was clearly a "new" New Deal. Roosevelt also said, "With those taxes in there, no damn politician can ever scrap my social security program." He didn't envision this unfairness either I'd bet, or he would have created a way to prevent it. It's a crying shame that a system that was designed to give workers comfort in retirement has been bastardized to the point where people cannot retire as a result of misguided manipulation of the program's goals.
Many low-grade feds work two jobs & they are paying into the fed retirement system and also SS. Therefore, they should be able to benefit from both if their 40 quarters have been met and they are continuing to pay into it; not be penalized by reduction or no benefits. both. Retirement pmts do not equal pay for working; it's even harder on a single person because cost of living keeps rising and fed salaries have been frozen.
After many years of working and paying into social security, I heard that the public schools needed teachers. I returned to school to get certified for teaching, and to get a Masters in Education. A couple of years into teaching the Windfall Elimination Provision and Government Pension Offset were passed. I knew that I would not be able to work enough years to have an adequate teacher's pension, and to pay off the loan for my Masters degree. I recently lost my job due to the budget cuts to education. Due to my age, I doubt that I will be able to obtain another job in education. (They are not supposed to discriminate because of age, but they ask for your birthdate on the applications. I have applied to 12 schools and not had one call to even interview. They can hire new teachers for less, and with the budget constraints they are under, this is understandable) I cannot afford to retire if my Social Securiity benefits are reduced. Therefore, even though I am old enough to retire, I cannot afford to, and have to take unemployment benefits for the first time in my life until I can find a job. I am sure there are many teachers and state employees that cannot afford to retire, and we are competing for jobs that the younger people need.
they need to pay out alest double of they do. pep on s.s should beable to live not just survive.and there meds are also killing them.some do with out them. just pay back what they have stolen ofer the year would fixs it for a long time.
I'd better be getting my full benefit when I retire in addition to PERS or I may be standing in the welfare line, or at the very least, eating top ramen and peanut butter in my retirement years with no money to do anything with but pay the bills! NOT OK! If I don't get the benefit, then I shouldn't be required to pay into the system, then I could put that money into a retirement account. As it is, I am putting money into a 403B, but not enough ... and health care keeps taking a bigger bite out of our paychecks and bank account with higher premiums and deductibles each year. When does it stop! With the way things are going, I'll be dead before I'm able to collect a dime as the state keeps messing with PERS and the Soc. Sec. retirement age keeps increasing! But maybe that is the intent!
Ditto the other comments. I paid into social security for 20 years before working in education. Now I will lose most of my social security benefit. To make matters worse, I cannot live on my salary from public education alone, so I continue to do contract work for which I have to pay self-employment taxes into social security. So each year, I continue to pay in with no real future benefit!
Americans who never paid one cent into Social Security are given a social security benefit. Public employees who also worked in the private sector have paid their FULL MANDATORY DEDUCTION, but then are reduced if we receive our PERS. Many retirees have pension funds other than social security, do those pensions also reduce their SS benefit? Do federal employees get their SS benefit reduced? For someone who does not have 30+ years with public service; the PERS is not that great and neither is the SS benefit.
We are supposed to believe in no taxation without representation. We are supposed to believe in the great American work ethic. Then, at the end of our careers, we discover that neither of these apply to many of us, especially married women who worked partly in a pension system and partly in the private sector. Not only will my own SS benefits be cut to nearly nothing, it is possible that I will receive nothing from my husband's SS should he pass away before I do. My pension is based on 16 years of work and also very small. Christine Swanberg, Teacher
On June 15, 2011 my editorial "Reductions to Social Security Benefits Unfair" was printed by the Dayton Daily News. The GPO and WEP are reducing my social security benefits down to $315.00/month. I have a small OPERS pension. The Cincinnati Enquirer also posted my editorial "OPERS - GPO and WEP - Windfall or Pitfall?
I worked for the government for over 20 years and paid a FULL share into their MANDATORY retirement system and I worked for over 20 years and paid a FULL SHARE into the MANDATORY social security system. I should then be ENTITLED to a FULL SHARE of my rightfully earned social security benefits!!!
It’s time our congressmen and senators stop waiting for us to die and pay us our PROMISED full benefits.
Fair Tax/Fair Benefits: I worked 40% of my working life I paid into Social Security. Because I worked 60% of my working life under another program, I have lost most of my Social Security. If we want fair Tax, we should have fair benefits.
Feel the windfall/offset is unethical, criminal, and is killing me as I cannot even afford medication I need. It's my money that government used elsewhere (have transcripts from CNN aired 8-10 explaining one trillion dollars of SS money spent on wars, weapons, education, whatever government). It's my money; I worked for it; you have no right to steel it. SHAME ON ALL OF YOU!!!!!!!
Please pass HR235 and S.484. It is inherently unfair to penalize recipients who paid into the system simply because they receive a state government pension.
Please discontinue penalizing government retirees. We deserve the same access to our full social security payments as those who receive pensions from private companies.
My meager Social Security benefit from working as a teacher in PA for 12 years has been halved by WEP just because I also receive a pension for working 12 years in Ohio schools . Why should I be punished by not getting what I paid into for those 12 years? Where is the fairness in that?
I believe it is VERY unfair to penalize those of us that have worked for the public sector and paid into Social Security, as well as worked for the state and paid into a Public Employees Retirement System. Federal Employees are permitted to "double-dip" so aren't state employees. It's a double standard!!!
My meager Social Security benefit from 12 years of service in the Air Force has been halved by WEP just because I also receive a modestly better paying equivalent for over 35 additional working years in Germany. Why should I be punished by not getting what I paid into for those 12 years? Where is the logic here?
I am in hopes with all the education cuts that more and more will find out about the WEP and begin to support the repeas of the Social Security Fairness Act 2011. It is immoral that this has been ignored by the Committee let's see this has been going on how many decades now? Something is wrong and it must lie with the people because if the people would ALL scream about this unfairness and vote accordingly...it just might get fixed.
Support HR235 and S. 484 - Pass the Social Security Fairness Act
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It's not a tax - it's something we paid for long ago.
alsheimer desease signed this unfair law pushed on him by some very unfair legislatures that were undermining seniors that work for a state. Seems to me that the Ways & Means Committee could at least get it to Congress after the asking of the appeal for decades. I am a 70 year old senior that cannot retire due to the unfiar WEP law. I ask that the Committee due the job we have ask for and get this appeal through - for Gods Sakes!
because of the Windfall Act. At 71, I'm having to work full time
It’s time our congressmen and senators stop waiting for us to die and pay us our PROMISED full benefits.
Sign the Petition