If passed, the bill would increase benefits for millions of workers who have seen their benefits reduced.
The Social Security program faces many challenges in the coming years to solve financial issues, and address other issues that stakeholders say badly need change.
While this won’t happen overnight, there is now a bipartisan effort to get rid of two provisions that limit — and in some cases eliminate — Social Security benefits for millions of Americans based on where they worked for part of their careers. This bill could see a vote in the U.S. House of Representatives as soon as next month.
Let’s take a look.
The Social Security Fairness Act
The Social Security Fairness Act is looking to eliminate two provisions: The Windfall Elimination Provision (WEP) and the Government Pension Offset (GPO). The WEP lowers Social Security benefits for workers who received non-covered pensions, which come from employers that do not take out Social Security taxes from their employee’s salary. Many of these people work for state or local governments or foreign employers.
According to the Social Security Administration (SSA), Congress passed the WEP so that workers couldn’t get higher benefits from being low-earning workers over a long period and also getting non-covered pensions. The WEP can lower monthly benefits by nearly $300 for those with 25 years of coverage and $400 for workers with 20 years of coverage. In 2022, the WEP affected roughly 2.05 million Social Security beneficiaries.
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The other provision is the Government Pension Offset (GPO), which can lower benefits for spouses or surviving spouses of retirees who received non-covered pensions. The GPO lowers benefits by two-thirds of a spouse or surviving spouse’s non-covered pensions, and can even fully cancel out a benefit, depending on the size of a non-covered pension.
For instance, if there is a spouse of a covered worker with an $1,800 monthly Social Security benefit, the spouse would get half, or $900. Because of the GPO, the spouse would then see that $900 benefit reduced by two-thirds and be left with $297. If the GPO is larger than the spousal benefit then the spouse is not eligible for any Social Security benefits. In 2022, the GPO applied to roughly 734,600 beneficiaries.
A report from the Urban Institute in 2020 said that eliminating the WEP and GPO would lead to an annual average increase in benefits of $7,300 for those affected. Lower-income earners could be in line for an additional annual increase in benefits of $3,600, while higher-income earners could see an additional $8,900 annually.
The likelihood of the bill passing
Last month, House Representatives Garret Graves (R-LA) and Abigail Spanberger (D-VA) obtained 218 signatures from voting members in the House to put forward a discharge petition. This requires a vote on the bill, which is expected to happen sometime in November during the lame duck session following the Presidential election.
The bill has 300 co-sponsors in the House, so it seems to have a decent chance of passing. Members of the House may also feel more at ease during the lame duck session because they know whether they will be rejoining or leaving the House. However, passage in the Senate may be more complicated. The bill may not get a vote before the lame duck session is over, and then there will likely be new faces in the Senate.
Not everyone favors the bill, which could cost $190 billion over the next decade, according to the Congressional Budget Office. This is likely to irk some members of the House and Senate who are more concerned about the financial state of Social Security and the U.S. budget.
Like most bills, passage won’t come without obstacles, but things seem to be moving along.