Teachers Call on Bay State to Address Effect of Federal WEP

Teachers at a recent hearing called on the Massachusetts legislature to investigate the effects of the federal Windfall Elimination Provision (WEP) and Government Pension Offset (GPO). 

The Joint Committee on Public Service July 25 held a hearing concerning Resolve S. 1656, which calls for an investigation and study by a special commission regarding the effects of the WEP and GPO in Massachusetts.  

State Sen. Ryan Fattman (R-Worcester-Norfolk), Assistant Minority Leader in the Massachusetts Senate, introduced the measure. It calls for the creation of a special commission to investigate and study the effects of the WEP and the GPO on employees who are members of a contributory retirement system in Massachusetts. The commission would report to the general court the result of its investigation and study, its recommendations, and drafts of legislation necessary to carry those recommendations into effect. 

The bill also calls for:

• the establishment of an education plan on Social Security offset programs and their effects on those employees; and 
• affected employees to be able to recoup benefits lost due to the WEP and GPO through expansion of the Massachusetts Deferred Compensation Save Money and Retire Tomorrow Plan.

Testimony 

Two teachers testified before the committee regarding the effect of the WEP on them and expressed support for S. 1656. Both had spent significant time as employees of employers in the private sector before they became teachers in the Massachusetts Public School System and had roughly spent half their working lives in each sector. 

When one became a teacher, she said, “I knew that most of my Social Security monies would be held back, but it did not seem as important as a teaching career.” However, she suffered a bad accident and was not able to work as long as she had planned—and said that because of the WEP the resultant reduction of her Social Security benefits creates “tremendous” hardship for her and put her income at the poverty level by the definition used by the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. 
The situation is “penny wise and pound foolish,” she said, adding, “If you want good teachers, you have to pay them well. They need to be paid fairly and not be penalized for choosing public service.” 

The other witness had not been aware of the WEP and the effect of its application. He had spent 21 years each in private industry setting aside Social Security benefits and then as a teacher, participating in the state employee pension system—which he characterized as “a half dip and a half dip” into both systems, comprising a “single dip, not a double dip.” 

“What this is doing to teachers and many others is literally robbing us of our earned retirement,” he said, also noting that “many teachers came to the classroom from industry and we do not deserve to be punished.” 

About the WEP and the GPO

The WEP and the GPO are benefit formulas that reduce Social Security benefits for workers and their eligible family members if the worker receives (or is entitled to) a pension based on earnings from employment not covered by Social Security. The WEP is intended to remove an advantage or “windfall” that workers it affects would otherwise inadvertently receive due to the interaction between the regular Social Security benefit formula and the workers’ relatively short careers in Social Security-covered employment.