Glen Brown. More on teacher Social Security theft.
– By Glen Brown. Glen blogs at Teacher/Poet/Musician/Watch Cat. This is a post from 2012 with current updates.
The Windfall Elimination Provision (WEP) “was enacted as part of the 1983 Social Security Refinancing Act, designed to shore up the financing of the Social Security Trust Fund. That Act was signed into law by President Ronald Reagan” (Mass Retirees).
“The Windfall Elimination Provision primarily affects [a public employee who has] earned a pension in any job where [he or she] did not pay Social Security taxes and also worked in other jobs long enough to qualify for a Social Security retirement or disability benefit” (Social Security website).
WEP reduces any earned Social Security in other jobs because of a state pension benefit. “…Reduction in [a] Social Security benefit cannot be more than one-half of the amount of [one’s public] pension that is based on earnings after 1956 on which [he or she] did not pay Social Security taxes…
“The Windfall Elimination Provision may apply if [the public employee reaches 62] after 1985; or [if he or she] became disabled after 1985; and [if he or she] first became eligible for a monthly pension based on work where [he or she] did not pay Social Security taxes after 1985…” (Social Security website).
According to Mass Retirees, “the WEP affects members who apply for their own (not spousal) Social Security benefits and fail to satisfy certain exceptions. A major exception is that members, who were eligible for their public pension before January 1, 1986 (i.e., 20/more years of service under age 55, or 10/more years over 55) or have at least 30 years of substantial coverage under Social Security, are exempt from the WEP. (There is some relief for those with 20-30 years of SS coverage.”
The Government Pension Offset (GPO) is “a provision in the 1977 Social Security Amendments signed into law by President Jimmy Carter” (Mass Retirees).
“The GPO affects members who apply for Social Security spousal benefits, based Glen Brown. More on teacher Social Security theft. | Fred Klonsky:
Karl Gabbey: They’re not nuts. It’s the Tribune.
– By Karl Gabbey. Karl is Democratic Precinct Committeeman, Precinct 56, Bloomingdale Township.
Sorry, Fred, that it took until this morning to weigh in on this one. I found it difficult to restrain myself…
I‘m no fan of Chicago’s news sources, broadcast, online. or print. My criticism of our local media has grown exponentially over the years. The Chicago Tribune is at the top of my s#*t list. Shallow reporting and commentary reflect mostly ideologically conservative and corporate influences which are contrary to the interests of 99% of Chicagoans and are just plain irrational, or in common parlance: “Nuts.”
I once had a subscription to the Trib for quite some years which ended abruptly when its editorial board supported Al Salvi over Dick Durbin in the 1996 U.S. Senate race. Al Salvi was a misogynist teabagger; actually, just a teabagger ahead of his time. That was the final blow. I dropped my subscription immediately. Then came a call from the Trib to urge me to continue, but I told the sales rep that I was fed up with the “nutty” content of its editorials plus its habitually pathetic endorsements of some of the most retrograde political candidates imaginable. Don’t these people ever do serious homework? I suppose if one is so ideologically immersed in a conservative/ libertarian/ corporate cesspool as the Trib’s editorial board is, there’d be no need for homework because its members like Kristen McQueary already have the answers to everything. Inconvenient facts just get in the way of their sacred Karl Gabbey: They’re not nuts. It’s the Tribune.
