Colquitt County educators seek support to change Social Security rules

Published 1:49 pm Monday, August 29, 2016

MOULTRIE, Ga. — Is it fair for a government worker to get two pensions?

Back in 1977, Congress decided it was not, and it decided Social Security counts as one of those pensions. Two amendments were passed to the Social Security Act — the government pension offset and the windfall elimination provision.

The result of those two provisions has been workers who paid into Social Security at one job and a government pension at another — or their spouses — often lose some or all of their Social Security benefits, according to the website www.ssfairness.com.

In Colquitt County, affected workers are mostly teachers, and a petition is circulating through local schools urging U.S. Rep. Austin Scott to support a repeal of those provisions. A group of local educators will meet with him Wednesday to present the petition.

The petition begins with a personal story:

“Throughout his 30-year career as a vocational agriculture teacher Scott Hart was also a farmer. He farmed to earn extra income and to establish a legacy for his family. Each year when he filed his federal income taxes, he also paid Social Security and Medicare taxes on his farm income as a self-employed person. He paid a double rate as the employer and the employee. When Scott applied to receive Social Security benefits, he learned he would receive about half the amount indicated in correspondence he had been receiving from the Social Security Administration. However, he has since learned his wife, who is also a retired educator, will probably never receive a spousal benefit based on his contributions.”

The Colquitt County School System is one of several in Georgia that does not withhold Social Security taxes. Instead, it provides a Teacher Retirement Plan, a pension. Some entire states treat teacher pensions that way.

The affected people, according to local advocates, are school employees whose spouse works outside the system or who have themselves worked in jobs that did withhold Social Security taxes.

GPO reduces public employees’ Social Security spousal or survivor benefits by two-thirds of their public pension, the petition says. Nine out of 10 people lose their entire spousal benefit, even though their spouse paid Social Security taxes for many years, the petition says.

WEP reduces the earned Social Security benefits of an individual who also receives a public pension from a job not covered by Social Security, the petition says.

U.S. Rep. Rodney Davis, R-Illinois, introduced the Social Security Fairness Act (House Bill 973) in February 2015, according to the website congress.gov. It was forwarded to the Subcommittee on Social Security right away, and it hasn’t moved since. Local advocates say if it is not passed by the end of December, it will die.

The website govtrack.us predicts a 1 percent chance of the bill’s passage.

One of the hurdles it faces is concern about the overall well-being of the Social Security system. According to a story at Time.com, Social Security taxes cover about three-fourths of the benefits paid out each year. The difference is paid from the Social Security Trust Fund, which accrued over the years when more was paid in than was paid out. That trust fund is expected to run out of money in 2034, but because several variables apply it could come earlier or later. At that point, incoming taxes would be enough to pay for 79 percent of benefits, and that ratio would shrink to 73 percent by 2089. None of that considers the effect of eliminating the government pension offset or windfall elimination provision.

Local advocates are asking the public to contact Rep. Austin Scott through his website, www.austinscott.house.gov, or his Facebook page to show their support for House Bill 973. Scott’s Tifton office can also be called at (229) 396-5175, or his Washington office at (202) 225-6531. While the public is welcome to sign the petition, advocates don’t want supporters to interrupt the schools where it is located.