CalRTA News

Did you know that every teacher and school administrator in California who has earned Social Security, or is the surviving spouse of a deceased Social Security earner, is being cheated out of his or her earned Social Security retirement benefits?

The culprits? The Government Pension Offset and Windfall Elimination Provision laws. Also affected are Los Angeles County and City workers, highway patrolmen, many firemen and policemen, and postal workers.

How do the laws affect workers?

Here’s an example: A person works for 15 years as an accountant and contributes to Social Security. That person then goes into teaching and works for 15 years, contributing to the State Teachers' Retirement System. When that person retires from teaching, after a total of 30 years of work, he or she loses all Social Security benefits for which he or she had paid for 15 years! And if the person's spouse was a Social Security payer and predeceased the teacher, any Social Security spousal benefit which the teacher would have been entitled to ends when the teacher retires!

What are the Government Pension Offset and Windfall Elimination Provision laws? These are two provisions of federal law that reduce the amount of Social Security benefits, spousal benefits, or survivor benefits a person can receive if he/she is also receiving a public pension: The Government Pension Offset (GPO) reduces an individual's Social Security benefits (available to a person whose deceased spouse had earned Social Security benefits) by an amount equal to two-thirds of his/her public pension. The Windfall Elimination Provision (WEP) changes the formula used to figure benefit amounts - reducing an individual's own Social Security benefits (earned while working in a job covered by Social Security).

For years CalRTA, and a coalition of the states affected, has been working to repeal these penalties. With the new Congressional Session came new bills to address this issue.  Representative Howard Berman has reintroduced the Social Security Fairness Act (HR 235) to repeal the Social Security penalties. Repealing these penalties remains CalRTA’s highest federal priority.

You can help by contacting the Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and asking that they enact legislation to repeal these penalties.

Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi
United States House of Representatives 
235 Cannon HOB
Washington, DC 20515 
(202) 225-4965

Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi 
District Office 
450 Golden Gate Ave. - 14th Floor 
San Francisco, CA 94102 
(415) 556-4862

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid
United States Senate
528 Hart Senate Office Bldg
Washington, DC 20510

The following are points you can use in your letter:

• California has almost one million employees who qualify for Social Security benefits or are married to a Social Security earner and are denied their earned retirement benefits.
• Most of these employees are teachers, police and sheriff officers, and firefighters.
• California is one of 14 states where public school teachers fall under this federal penalty. The law also affects some city and county employees.
• If a teacher worked for 20 years in the private sector, earned Social Security credits and then entered teaching in California and taught 20 years, that teacher could lose more than half of his/her earned Social Security retirement benefits.
• If a teacher’s spouse was a Social Security earner and preceded the teacher in death, the teacher would lose the earned Social Security spousal death benefit.

CalRTA has created a brochure that clearly explains the Social Security penalties. You can download the brochure here.