HR 82 passes House

[TLuke]

HR 82 Social Security Fairness Act passed the House last night. Eliminates WEP and GPO penalties for retired and future public servants. I hope this passes the Senate and POTUS signs.

[TLuke]

21 Dec 2024 Senate passes Social Security Fairness Act; sent to President Biden’s desk. WEP/GPO repealed.

[evilanne]

How would that work? It doesn't affect me but it would my mother because Dad retired military & civil service and the amount my mother gets for SSA is very small but my father has been dead for quite some time..
https://www.fedsmith.com/2024/12/21/wep ... -congress/
Not sure how that will impact budget, debt and social security's long term outlook

[Aitrus]

As I understand it, repealing WEP/GPO means that people who didn't contribute funds to SSA during some of their working years (meaning, years they worked to earn a pension but didn't pay into SSA, like CSRS folks) will now have have their SSA benefit recalculated. It will result in a higher payout because those non-contributing years are now counted as contributing years.

It'll most likely increase the US' budget deficit (as well as the debt) and / or reduce the amount of time that SSA remains a self-sustaining program. Either SSA benefits for everyone across the board will have to be reduced sooner (As I recall, the current estimate for reducing is somewhere around 2034/35), or money will have to be magicked up out of the Discretionary portion of the budget to make up for the shortfall.

[TLuke]

As I understand it, repealing WEP/GPO means that people who didn't contribute funds to SSA during some of their working years (meaning, years they worked to earn a pension but didn't pay into SSA, like CSRS folks) will now have have their SSA benefit recalculated. It will result in a higher payout because those non-contributing years are now counted as contributing years.

It'll most likely increase the US' budget deficit (as well as the debt) and / or reduce the amount of time that SSA remains a self-sustaining program. Either SSA benefits for everyone across the board will have to be reduced sooner (As I recall, the current estimate for reducing is somewhere around 2034/35), or money will have to be magicked up out of the Discretionary portion of the budget to make up for the shortfall.

There are two circulars at ssa.gov that you can google (“ssa.gov wep” or “ssa.gov gpo”) that better explain WEP & GPO.
Couple of real world examples:
1. Wife’s friend 35yr CSRS retiree also had enough part time work to be fully vested in Social Security. With WEP, her social security benefit was severely reduced. Just barely enough to cover Medicare Part B. With WEP repeal, she’ll have access to her fully earned social security benefits.
2. My wife, 35yr CSRS retiree, no other work contributing to Social Security, was affected by GPO for spouse/surviving spouse social security benefits. Based on my social security benefits, the GPO formula wiped out any of my social security spousal benefits for her. With GPO repeal, she’ll have access to my full social security spousal benefits.

I’ll steer clear of any pros/cons and budget impact discussions. POTUS still has to sign.

[evilanne]

SSA Notice on how to deal with inquiries, still researching how to handle if passed into law
https://secure.ssa.gov/apps10/reference ... 24031540PM

Also found this for Military Service from SSA (Dad was retired military and worked while going to school after retirement b4 civil service) https://www.ssa.gov/benefits/retirement ... itary.html. Anyone have any experience with this?

[TLuke]

POTUS signed Sunday, 5 January 2025.