LVSteve
Member
Just needs a signature from POTUS. I'm willing to bet the repeal of the WEP and GPO provisions will help a good few members here. It will help me quite a bit, that's for sure.
Social Security Fairness Act passes the Senate
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mckenney99
Member
I haven't heard or read yet if it was going to apply retroactively or only for new applicants. It won't make a huge difference for me but every little bit would help.
Am not up to date on the provisions, but am aware that in the past certain employees were paid much higher wages due to not participating in the ss system. This certainly may have changed, but railroad and postal workers were paid much higher than normal and responsible for setting aside their own retirement.
This is much different from working the side job aspects.
This is much different from working the side job aspects.
It will add a little for me, but I worked 30 years outside of my police pension anyway, so it won't add much.
Don't know what kind of bump we will get...
But it's gotta be better than the $34.00 a month
I now receive.
But it's gotta be better than the $34.00 a month
I now receive.
As a 30 year postal worker, we definitely paid SS.
CAJUNLAWYER
Member
It will help me. A lot.
When talking to local postal worker up here (full time letter carrier bout 20 yrs ago), he said they didn't participate.
So this new act will benefit you?
I don't appear to benefit at all, after 25 years state work.
It appears postal workers hired before 1984 did not participate in ss, but were in separate fed program.
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It'll help me significantly too, and I'm also a bit disappointed Rand Paul's amendment did not pass. Paul's amendment would have paid for the WEP/GPO elimination; most in Washington do not believe things should be paid for, so long as they can keep kicking the can down the street. I was surprised to learn that back in 2021 S/S started paying more than it takes in; I thought that line wasn't going to be crossed until they say S/S will hit a wall in 12 or 15 years and won't be able to pay the promised amounts without changes of some kind.
From all I've read, there is no longer a social Security "fund", but rather, it's become a direct transfer program with currently working people paying currently retired people.
I've worked and paid SS tax since I was a kid at my two jobs before the Marine Corps. Paid in the Corps, four years, and after getting out got a job at Dayton Police. I had side jobs nearly the entire time that paid SS tax, some of them were downright dangerous. After retiring from DPD I had a government contracting job where I paid SS tax. I was more than qualified for full SS when I started drawing it, but WEP gutted the net to me payments. This will change my yearly income by a lot.
I'd like to add one last thing, many of the side jobs I did had two forms of payment. Cash under the table or by check with the earnings reported. I always opted to report the income and pay taxes, despite having a wife three kids. For me, it went against my ethics to do it any other way. Imagine my surprise when the SS worker told me I'd more than paid for the benefits but was only getting less than half. As I left that day I thought to myself, "at least one us can hold their head up and not feel like a thief". Now, it looks like my decision has come good. That's pretty cool.
I'd like to add one last thing, many of the side jobs I did had two forms of payment. Cash under the table or by check with the earnings reported. I always opted to report the income and pay taxes, despite having a wife three kids. For me, it went against my ethics to do it any other way. Imagine my surprise when the SS worker told me I'd more than paid for the benefits but was only getting less than half. As I left that day I thought to myself, "at least one us can hold their head up and not feel like a thief". Now, it looks like my decision has come good. That's pretty cool.
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With $33 Trillion in debt, there are no "funds". There's no treasure in the Treasury.
Isn't that a Ponzi scheme?
Ματθιας;142132053 said:
Yes. the Social Security "fund" was spent decades ago. It has only IOU's in it now.
Here's what the trustees say. The 2024 OASDI Trustees Report
DWalt
Member
There has never been a SS “lockbox”. And it does strongly resemble an enormous Ponzi scheme.
Back in the early 1980s, Federal employees were given the option to go with a different retirement plan which included the Thrift Savings Plan plus Social Security. The TSP is like a conventional IRA. New Fed employees had to use the new TSP/SS plan. Older employees could stay with the old Fed retirement plan.
If you paid social security taxes on "substantial earnings" -- an amount set on an annual basis -- for at least 30 years the WEP wouldn't have affected you at all. It only applied to those with less than thirty years, with a sliding scale for the penalty, maxing out for those under 20 years.
I paid on 28 years of substantial earnings, so I wasn't looking at much of a reduction. The repeal will only net me about $117 per month more when I pull the plug. But I'll take it.
Correction: I think the 30 calculation was tied to the years prior to the one in which you turned 62 (???), so individual mileage may vary.
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Fairness Act...yea right. SS payments for people that didn't pay into the system. Yet again, the old goats are sticking it to the young that are being bled dry paying into the system and continue to have the day they qualify pushed out into the future. They have to pay the crippling .gov pensions, and now they have to pay for this. This is a terrible change; I pity the younger generations that have to pay for this.
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dsf
Member
Glad you posted this. I need more info overall, not sure what to make of this.
If an person did not pay the SS tax because they were a state or federal employee with their own retirement program, and they can now receive SS $$ benefits - that excessively drains the system. I understand that's not your situation, and it may not be what was done in general.
On the "being paid more" with their own retirement program, but still paying the SS tax. I suppose a case can be made for it.
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