Senate passes Social Security Fairness Act

The US Senate passed a bipartisan bill early Saturday to increase Social Security benefits for close to 3 million federal, state and local public sector workers, which includes firemen, policemen and teachers.

The US Senate passed a bipartisan bill early Saturday to increase Social Security benefits for close to 3 million federal, state and local public sector workers, which includes firemen, policemen and teachers. In the roll call vote, 76 senators voted in favor of the bill, and 20 senators voted against it. If the legislation is signed into law by President Joe Biden, it would apply to all benefits payable after December 2023. The Social Security Fairness Act — which already passed the House with overwhelming bipartisan support in November — eliminates two policies that have reduced Social Security benefits for public service employees. The workers affected are those who are eligible for government pensions from jobs where they didn’t pay into Social Security but who did pay into the program through other jobs or whose spouses did so. The first is the Windfall Elimination Provision (WEP). “The WEP reduces benefits for retired or disabled workers who have fewer than 30 years of significant earnings from employment covered by Social Security if they also receive pensions on the basis of noncovered employment,” according to the Congressional Budget Office. The second provision that will be eliminated is the Government Pension Offset (GPO). “The GPO reduces the spousal or surviving spousal benefits of people who receive pensions on the basis of noncovered employment,” CBO noted.