The Humble Observer - Brady Introduces Bill to Restore Benefits for Teachers, Police and Firefighters

News Article

By Nate Brown

When Carolyn Monroe -- a retired Humble Independent School District teacher -- turned 60, she received a letter from Social Security informing her of her benefits.
That number, combined with pension from the Teacher's Retirement Service would have been enough to live on.

However, when Monroe retired, she only received one third of her Social Security allotment because of a Windfall Elimination Provision, a formula established in 1983 to prevent public servants from receiving both pension and Social Security pay.

"I started paying into Social Security in Florida," Monroe said. "Then I moved to Georgia and continued paying into Social Security. In 1984, I came to Texas and started teaching. I had no clue that I was giving up everything I had paid into back in Florida and Georgia. It was a shock.

"I'm a single woman; I didn't have a second income. So I went back to work at the local college and worked until I was 72."

U.S. Rep. Kevin Brady and Massachusetts Democrat U.S. Rep. Richard Neal introduced a bill Monday to permanently repeal the WEP to allow public servants, who have paid into Social Security, to receive their full benefits.

"It penalizes public servants who've earned Social Security and have also earned pension from their work like so many Americans," Brady said. "Since 1983, it has treated these workers, I believe, unfairly. It is costly, it is wrong and it is time that it be changed.

"For years, we have worked with our teachers, firefighters and police to find a right solution and I'm here to announce we have. We have introduced the Equal Treatment of Public Servants Act this Congress and we are going to work hard in a bipartisan way to make it law this next year."

The Equal Treatment of Public Servants Act repeals the current WEP guarantees that public servants will receive the benefits they earned while they paid into Social Security and reduces WEP penalties by one-third for current retirees and up to one-half for future retirees.

"What the Social Security actuary tells us is that for current retirees, over their lifetime, it will add about $20,000 to their retirement and for future retirees, as much as $32,000," Brady said.

It guarantees public servants receive the benefits they earned while they paid into Social Security just like everybody else.

According to Brady, the original WEP was designed to prevent upper-echelon government employees from "double-dipping" into government retirement programs but, government employees like firefighters, police and teachers suffered the collateral damage.

"It assumed that everyone who was receiving both pension payments and Social Security benefits was wealthy. Well, if you talk to our firefighters and teachers and police, "wealthy' would not be the phrase that comes to mind," Brady said. "I think no matter where you are in America, no matter how you paid into Social Security, you just want to be treated fairly at the end of the day, and that's what this is."

According to Brady's office, public servants who turn 62 on or after Jan. 1, 2017 will benefit from the new Public Servant Fairness Formula. On average, they will receive an estimated $1,620 in additional Social Security benefits per year.

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