Dec 4, 2024
Around 2.5 million retirees could get some good news this holiday season: Their Social Security benefit checks may be increasing. That’s because the U.S. House of Representatives passed a bill that would repeal two rules limiting the retirement benefits received by public sector workers, including teachers, health care workers and firefighters.
The legislation has rare bipartisan support in the Senate as well, so there's a very real chance that it will be officially signed into law.
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“These Americans are being punished for supporting and protecting our neighbors and families, educating our children, providing health care to our veterans, delivering our mail, and more,” lawmakers wrote in an open letter to Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and Minority Leader Mitch McConnell.
“Social Security’s short-term solvency should not be propped up by the stolen benefits of these retirees — benefits they have long been owed and will never get back.”
However, time is running short for the Senate to take action, so it remains to be seen if these seniors will get the extra funds this rule change could usher in.
More benefits for millions
The legislation passed by the House is called the Social Security Fairness Act. It does two things:
- Repeals the Windfall Elimination Provision
- Repeals the Government Pension Offset
The Windfall Elimination Provision reduces Social Security benefits if you worked for an employer that doesn’t withhold Social Security tax from your salary and that pays you a pension or disability benefits.
The Government Pension Offset reduces Social Security benefits if you receive retirement or disability benefits from the federal, state or local government based on work you did that you didn’t pay Social Security taxes on.
Both of these regulations result in many public sector workers — including teachers, police officers and firefighters — seeing their Social Security benefits reduced if, for example, they work part-time at a job that’s covered by Social Security. Even though they pay into the system, their benefits decline just because they also work for the government.
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Will it become law?
Since the House of Representatives already passed the Social Security Fairness Act, the next step would be for the bill to pass the U.S. Senate. There are 62 co-sponsors in the Senate, which is more than the number of votes needed for the legislation to pass.
Many interest groups have been encouraging lawmakers to take action, and Reps. Garret Graves and Abigail Spanberger released a statement urging leadership to act, stating “a broad, bipartisan coalition of 62 Senators have signed on … We encourage Senate leadership to build upon this clear momentum, bring our bipartisan effort up for a vote, and deliver retirement security to Americans who have earned it.”
The House passed along the bill to the Senate on Nov. 19, however, there’s just a short time left in the legislative session, so it’s unclear if a vote will be scheduled in time. There are also some concerns that the legislation could result in Social Security’s trust fund running out of money sooner than anticipated since a lot more benefits will be paid out.
However, as Spanberger pointed out, the future solvency of the retirement benefits program is a separate issue to address, and public workers shouldn’t have to bear the brunt of the burden by getting smaller benefits than they deserve. It remains to be seen if this argument will pan out and if Congress will make passing this law a priority.
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Christy Bieber has 15 years of experience as a personal finance and legal writer. She has written for many publications including Forbes, Kilplinger, CNN, WSJ, Credit Karma, Insurify and more.
