Fight two unjust Social Security provisions that significantly hurt hundreds of thousands of teachers, school support personnel, police officers, firefighters and other public employees.

Dear [ Decision Maker ] ,

I write to call your attention to two unjust Social Security provisions that significantly hurt hundreds of thousands of teachers, school support personnel, police officers, firefighters and other public employees.

Legislation has been introduced (H.R. 82 and S.206) in the 110th Congress by Rep. Howard Berman (D-Calif.) and Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) that would repeal the Government Pension Offset (GPO) and the Windfall Elimination Provision (WEP). These provisions reduce or eliminate Social Security benefits for retirees who receive pensions from non-Social Security-covered employment. Overall, 1.5 million workers are affected by GPO/WEP.

These provisions apply only to public pensions not covered under Social Security (recipients of private pensions and other public pensions covered by Social Security are not subject to such penalties). Although these Social Security benefit reductions may have been intended to curtail payments of windfall benefits to highly paid individuals, in practice they have had devastating consequences for low- and middle-income public employees in these retirement plans. The average reduction is between $300 and $400 a month--a significant amount of money for a retiree on a fixed income.

The provisions are unfair to individuals who have paid into Social Security (the WEP provision) or whose spouses have paid into Social Security (the GPO provision) by denying full Social Security benefits. Further, by reducing the Social Security retirement income of teachers, other school employees and state employees, these Social Security benefit cuts discourage individuals from entering the profession, at exactly the time when our nation faces a severe shortage of teachers in the fields of math, science, and special education as well as essential state and local government services

I am counting on you to co-sponsor this legislation in the 110th Congress and to work for its enactment.

Please tell me where you stand on this issue.

Sincerely,

Campaign Launched:
March 13, 2007