Wednesday, October 28, 2015

An Update on the Social Security Fairness Act: Elimination of GPO/WEP





 
"This information was provided by Rep Rodney Davis's office.

"...An update on the Social Security Fairness Act.  The passage of this act would eliminate the Government Pension Offset/Windfall Elimination Provision from the Social Security Act.  

"Eliminating those two provisions will provide SS benefits to educators who earned enough credits to qualify for SS and survivor benefits for those whose deceased spouses qualified for SS benefits.  Bills were introduced in both the United States House of Representatives and the United States Senate.  Both bills are currently in committee.








"Included in this email is a list of the Illinois delegation.  Thus far, neither Senators Durbin nor Kirk have signed on as co-sponsors.  You can check to see if your U.S. representative is one of the 124 representatives who have co-sponsored the bill.  What you might want to consider is contacting our two senators and your representative encouraging them to co-sponsor this legislation or thanking them for already doing so..."

Let me know if you have questions.

Ed Wollet
217-620-8468

Current Illinois co-sponsors:
Rep. Rodney Davis
Rep. Mike Bost
Rep. Cheri Bustos
Rep. Tammy Duckworth
Rep. Bill Foster
Rep. Daniel Lipinski
Rep. Mike Quigley
Rep. Janice Schakowsky

For more information about GPO/WEP, click here.


Contact Dick Durbin:


Washington, D.C. 
711 Hart Senate Building
Washington, D.C. 20510 
Phone: 202-224-2152


Chicago 
230 S. Dearborn Street
Suite 3892
Chicago, IL 60604 
Phone: 312-353-4952


Springfield 
525 S. 8th Street
Springfield, IL 62703 
Phone: 217-492-4062




Contact Mark Kirk:

Washington, D.C.
524 Hart Senate Office Building
Washington DC, 20510
Phone: 202-224-2854
 

Chicago
230 South Dearborn
Suite 3900
Chicago, IL 60604
Phone: 312-886-3506
 

Springfield
607 East Adams
Suite 1520
Springfield, IL 62701
Phone: 217-492-5089



5 comments:

  1. Indeed, good news! But then, we in the 9th District are blessed to have Jan.
    Will contact Durbin (what's up with him?) & Kirk (we KNOW what's up with him!). Thanks for the heads up, as usual.

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  2. It would be nice to receive my own FULL SS benefit, since I earned them BEFORE working for a government agency that paid pensions.

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  3. Ed, thank you for this update.

    Since you brought up Social Security I would like to also bring up another Social Security matter that may have a negative impact on many state employees.

    It has been in the news that since there has been little inflation according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics Price Index(CPI) there will be no cost-of-living-adjustment(COLA) for those receiving Social Security
    For those years, Social Security recipients receive no COLA, their Medicare premiums can't go up- except for a third of those retirees receiving Medicare. These retirees, including those retirees receiving state pensions will have to shoulder the rising Medicare premiums even if these retirees(such as myself) receive no Social Security benefits whatsoever. The estimate that the third of Medicare recipients will be paying for their medicare premiums is put at 50-52%

    Take a look at this article:

    http://www.thinkadvisor.com/2015/10/15/confirmed-no-inflation-means-no-social-security-co

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  4. Ed, thank you for bringing this to our attention.

    I would like to bring to everyone's attention another Social Security matter that also can have a negative impact on the finances of state employees

    There has been news recently that there will be no cost-of-living(COLA) allowances for Social Security recipients The COLA for Social Security is based on the Bureau of Labor Statistics flawed Consumer Price Index(CPI)
    which theoretically is suppose to measure inflation.
    Since there will be no Social Security COLA for Social Security recipients, Medicare premiums can not go up--with the EXCEPTION of 1/3 or so of the Medicare recipients State employees , who receive no Social Security are included as part of that exception. Since the majority of Social Security recipients will see no rise in their Medicare premiums, the burden of paying for rising Medicare premiums will fall upon that 1/3 or so Medicare recipients.

    We need to let our legislators also know how unfair this is.

    Take a look at this article for more information:

    http://finance.yahoo.com/news/social-security-benefits-medicare-premiums-050000818.html;_ylt=A0LEViyS5S5WTpMA2wQnnIlQ;_ylu=X3oDMTByMjB0aG5zBGNvbG8DYmYxBHBvcwMxBHZ0aWQDBHNlYwNzYw--

    ReplyDelete
  5. I apologize for the duplication Kept receiving an error message so I did not think my message went through

    ReplyDelete

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