PETITION TO DEMAND REPEAL OF UNFAIR SOCIAL SECURITY GOVERNMENT PENSION OFFSET (GPO) AND WINDFALL ELIMINATION PROVISION (WEP)

 

Testmonial Videos

Scroll past videos for link to petition

 
Click here to read Joe Rugola’s full testimony to the Subcommittee on Social Security.
 

What you need to know:

 

• The Government Pension Offset (GPO) and Windfall Elimination Provision (WEP) penalize people who have dedicated their lives to public service.
• When the GPO was enacted, it was never intended to penalize women who need their social security spousal benefits for basic income.
• Social Security GPO is one of the most cruel and unfair issues in the entire retirement system, and 80 percent of those affected are women.
• Nine out of 10 public employees affected by the GPO upon the death of their spouse lose their entire spousal benefit, even though their spouse paid social security taxes for years. And if these public employees had not been working in public service, they would be entitled to the full spousal benefit. They worked their whole lives only to have their survivor’s benefit severely reduced.
• Under the WEP, those who have worked in the public and private sectors can lose up to 50 percent of their social security benefit when they retire. And those affected by GPO have their benefit offset by 2/3 of their public pension.
• The bottom line is that the GPO and WEP provisions force many public employees to either work a lot longer than they ordinarily would or to retire and live in poverty.

 

---

 

You can take action today to stop the unfair Social Security measures that strip OAPSE members of the benefits you should get when you retire.

Help us tell Congress to repeal the Government Pension Offset (GPO) and Windfall Elimination Provision (WEP). These laws reduce earned social security benefits and reduce or eliminate spousal survival benefits of thousands of OAPSE members and other workers who collect a public pension. These members who have already suffered the death of their spouse are suffering further when their retirement benefits are gutted by the GPO and WEP. They are counting on those survival benefits – earned by a spouse who worked in the private sector – and are devastated when they find out their retirement benefits will be cuts by 2/3 or even cut 100 percent.

Click here to read the stories of five OAPSE members who are impacted by the GPO. They represent the thousands of OAPSE members who are delaying retirement well into their 70s after decades of working because they just cannot afford to live without the spousal benefit.

OAPSE and AFSCME International are urging Congress to stop this injustice. We want to make sure members of Congress know we are serious and we want action.

Click on the petition to download and print a copy. Fill it with signatures and return to your local officers, field representative or the state office.

Let’s get as many signatures as we can to turn into Congress and turn up the heat on this issue!

It’s unfair and it needs to stop. Get those petitions completed and send a loud message to Congress to repeal the GPO and WEP.

Click here or click the image below to get a printable petition.