SEIU 888 Executive Board Resolution on the Windfall Elimination Provision and the Government Pension Offset

Whereas, two provisions of the Social Security Act, the Windfall Elimination Provision and the Government Pension Offset, reduce social security benefits for some public sector workers;

Whereas, the Windfall Elimination Provision (WEP) affects public sector workers in 14 states who have public retirement plans that operate outside of social security, and who also have social security retirement benefits from other employment;

Whereas, the Government Pension Offset (GPO) reduces the social security benefits that a person receives as a spouse if he or she also has a government pension based on work not covered by social security;

Whereas, the Social Security Administration calculates the benefits for these affected workers using an alternative formula that reduces the benefits of affected workers;

Whereas these provisions impact public employees who have dedicated their lives to public service;

Whereas the WEP causes hard-working people to lose a significant portion of the benefits they earned themselves and the number of people impacted by these provisions across the country is growing every day as more and more people reach retirement age;

Whereas nine out of ten public employees affected by the GPO lose their entire spousal benefit, even though their spouse paid Social Security taxes for many years;  Some 360,000 individuals lose an average of $3,600 a year due to the GPO – an amount that can make the difference between self-sufficiency and poverty;

Whereas impacted people have less money to spend in their local economy and sometimes have to turn to government programs like food stamps to make ends meet;

Whereas individuals who worked in other careers are less likely to want to become public employees if doing so will mean a loss of earned Social Security benefits;

Be it resolved that SEIU Local 888 joins our International Union and other public sector unions in supporting the repeal of these two Social Security provisions that negatively impact thousands of public employees.