Good News for Millions of US Workers – New Social Security Benefits Law Approved – Here’s How It Will Affect You

A new bill has been approved by the House of Representatives that will increase Social Security benefits for public service workers that previously had some restrictions over how much in benefits they were allowed to receive.

The bill in question is the House Resolution 82, the Social Security Fairness Act, which was approved by a 327-76 margin, with 191 Democrats and 136 Republicans voting in favor. The success of the bill was expected, as it had garnered a lot of bipartisan support, and even the Speaker of the House endorsed its passing.

The Social Security Fairness Act

The bill, introduced and sponsored by Reps. Garret Graves, R-Louisiana, and Abigail Spanberger, D-Virginia would eliminate the Windfall Elimination Provision (WEP) and the Government Pension Offset (GPO) for government workers. The WEP reduces the Social Security benefits of someone who also receives a public pension from a job not covered by Social Security and the GPO reduces spousal Social Security benefits by two-thirds of a worker’s government pension.

Both of these provisions working at the same time meant that 2.8 million public service workers, including teachers, police officers and others in government, would not have been eligible for larger Social Security payments upon retirement than they are entitled to, leaving them to struggle financially despite having earned the necessary credits and done the jobs necessary to support the claim. Thanks to the repeal of the provisions, they will now be able to claim this money.

Graves and Spanberger wrote in a joint statement explaining the importance of the bill “By passing the Social Security Fairness Act, a bipartisan majority of the U.S. House of Representatives showed up for the millions of Americans — police officers, teachers, firefighters, and other local and state public servants — who worked a second job to make ends meet or began a second career to support their families after retiring from public service. A bipartisan majority of the U.S. House voted to provide a secure retirement to the hundreds of thousands of spouses, widows, and widowers who are denied their spouses’ Social Security benefits simply because they chose careers of service.”

Despite the popularity of the measure, not everyone approved of the repeal of the WEP and the GPO, conservative-leaning nonprofit The Club for Growth urged lawmakers to vote against the bill, citing an increase in the government deficit. Int heir statement, the group commented “These two provisions are meant to preserve the integrity of the Social Security system that so many seniors depend on by ensuring that individuals and their spouses who worked in jobs that did not contribute to the Old Age and Survivor’s Insurance Trust Fund and receive pensions from those jobs do not threaten the solvency of Social Security.”

The twist here is that those that are eligible for Social Security benefits did have to work a job that allowed them to contribute to the system alongside their pension in order to get benefits. When the pension system was more robust, these provisions eliminated double dipping, but now that pensions are lower and the cost of living is higher, which forced many individuals to take a second job to sustain themselves, allowing them to draw the benefits they are entitled to is only fair.

The Congressional Budget Office estimates that the bill would add $195.6 billion to the deficit over the next 10 years if approved, which is one of the main concerns of conservative organizations, but the offset in public benefits that will not be paid out when these individuals have a living wage pension could easily offset the cost. The bill must now be approved by the Senate and then be signed into law.

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