3 million public servants to receive enhanced Social Security benefits

DALLAS – Millions of retired public service workers will soon see increased Social Security benefits thanks to a last-minute vote in the Senate. The Social Security Fairness Act restores benefits to about 3 million former teachers, police and firefighters, and civil servants who also receive pension payments. The measure passed the House in November and the Senate this weekend by a 76 to 20 vote. Four senators did not vote. Firefighters, police officers, postal workers, teachers, and others with a public pension have not collected full Social Security benefits for any job they held in the private sector for more than 50 years. Those retired received a decreased Social Security check called the Windfall Elimination Provision designed to prevent so-called double-dipping from a government pension and Social Security. That changes with the new Social Security Fairness Act for public service retirees like Hobie Hukill. “My calculated benefit was cut almost in half by the Windfall Elimination Provision,” said Hukill, a retired educator. “That really is the one that particularly galled most of our public employees, especially today, because so many of our public school employees and even in our other public services, they come in and out of the private sector to the public sector,” said Zeph Capo, the president of Texas AFT. The spouses of public service workers will also get full Social Security benefits when their spouse dies, like others who work in the private sector. But those who voted against the measure argued it would only speed up the clock on the struggling Social Security trust fund. “The Social Security Fairness Act is tyring to address what is an inequity and a problem. Unfortunately, it’s doing it in a way that is at the expense of $200 billion out of the Social Security Trust Fund without a dime offsetting it,” said U.S. Sen. Thom Tillis, a Republican from North Carolina. The price tag is about $196 billion. Without changes, Social Security is projected to be insolvent in the next 10 years. This is projected to speed that timeline up by about six months. President Joe Biden still has to sign the Social Security Fairness Act into law.