To the editor:
Time is running out to rectify a historic injustice foisted on police officers, fire fighters, U.S. postal workers, and teachers who were denied Social Security benefits in 1983 when the Windfall Elimination Provision and Government Pension Offset (WEP/GPO) Acts were passed. As a result, for more than 40 years, more than 3 million public servants and their families across the country have had widow/widower pensions denied to them—and Social Security benefits drastically reduced—despite having paid into the system.
For someone like me—a person who worked at jobs entailing Social Security payments for well over the required 40 quarters—the impact is significant. I returned to teaching late in my career and on retirement was given a modest teacher’s pension that has now prevented my receiving all but 20 percent of my Social Security benefit—and has eliminated the widow’s benefit altogether. I am not alone in experiencing this wage theft as there are more than 130,000 Massachusetts public servants who find themselves equally deprived.
As U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren recently noted, “Workers should be able to count on the retirement benefits they’ve earned. It’s time to pass the Social Security Fairness Act so government workers and their families are not punished for earning multiple sources of retirement income.”
Debated for decades, the proposed Social Security Fairness Act has until December 20 to be passed. Passed by the House last Tuesday in a significant bipartisan 375-to-75 vote, the bill now sits in the Senate, awaiting Sen. Chuck Schumer’s decision to bring it to a vote.
Please call or write Sen. Schumer’s office to urge action on the bill. Equally helpful would be contacting Senators Thune (S.D.), Crapo (Idaho), Grassley (Iowa), and Ernst (Ind.), who have yet to take a public position, and Senator McConnell (Ky.), who has staunchly opposed the bill. Especially effective would be having friends or family who live in their states make phone calls as well.
Let’s all join Sen. Bill Cassidy (La.) in urging a vote on this important issue when he noted that “it is unfair to penalize Americans who have taught our children, protected our streets, and run into burning buildings.” Four decades is a long time to wait for justice to be served. The time is now.
Michele Marantz
Dalton
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