ACTION NEEDED FOR SOCIAL SECURITY FAIRNESS PLUS WEBINAR

Alert #24 A New Congress—We await a new bill!  SSFairness.com

SIGN UP FOR WEBINAR EXPLAINING GPO/WEP AND ASK QUESTIONS

 

As the new members of Congress get settled in and the old ones get re-organized, those of us who were waiting for the GPO and WEP to be repealed are forging on! Despite the large turnover in the House of Representatives, we still have 252 co-signers of the last Social Security Fairness Act who have returned to Congress.  We need to remind them that we are still out here.  Those of us who have newly-elected Congress members need to “educate” them about how deeply unfair these provisions really are.  The cost of the 2011 one-year payroll tax holiday that was given to current workers in December was enough to pay for the repeal of the WEP and GPO for 10 years!  Don’t let anyone say that this country can’t pay us for the Social Security we have earned!

There are things to do:

1.  If you don’t know if your Congress member was a supporter for the last bill, you can check this list of Social Security Fairness Co-sponsors from the Library of Congress website:

http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/bdquery/z?d111:HR00235:@@@P

Then send a letter of thanks and/or let them know, again, of what the GPO or WEP has done to you. http://www.house.gov/

2.   If you want to know about these provisions in depth, you can download and read the Congressional Research Service 2010 Reports, new on our website under “Further Reading.”  http://www.ssfairness.com/further-reading.html

The WEP report refers to a 2008 study showing how the current formula is unfair to low-income workers.  From the GPO study, you can read how it is felt that the government cannot help the mostly women affected by the GPO because even more married persons will see how they are treated unfairly by Social Security!  Let us know what you think about these detailed papers.  People have looked at our website more than 25,000 times!

3.  To hear from the Social Security Administration directly about how the WEP and GPO work, sign up for their “webinar,” online seminar, on Wednesday, February 16, at 2:00 PM EST.  To participate you must RSVP for the webinar by visiting www.socialsecurity.gov/survey/gpo-wepRSVP.htm.   The National Education Association, which sent us this link, says that some webinars provide an opportunity to ask questions and make comments.  Just in case they do, be ready to ask them about something that is bothering you or tell them what you think about the WEP/GPO.  (Make sure that your computer speaker and mike are working for this!)  See below for the full SSA invitation.

4.  Join our Facebook Page:  Social Security Fairness – Repeal the GPO/WEP to interact with our 296 supporters around the country, mostly from CA with Ky as a runner up.  Help us spread the word by reposting our entries on your profile page and invite people to join our worthy cause.  Help us go viral!

Thank you for standing up for Social Security Fairness!

SOCIAL SECURITY WEBINAR

The Social Security Administration will be hosting a webinar, “How Some Public Employee or Teacher Pensions May Affect Social Security Benefits,” on Wednesday, February 16, 2011 at 2:00 p.m. EST.

In this webinar, we will walk you through how the Windfall Elimination Provision (WEP) and Government Pension Offset (GPO) may affect Social Security benefits of workers whose employers do not withhold Social Security taxes from their salary, such as some school systems and some local, state and federal government agencies.  For more information about WEP and GPO, visit our Government Employees webpage, www.socialsecurity.gov/gpo-wep/.

We ask that you share the webinar information with your members, colleagues, and other interested parties.

To RSVP for the webinar, please visit www.socialsecurity.gov/survey/gpo-wepRSVP.htm.

Sincerely,

Aviva Sufian

Associate Commissioner

for External Affairs

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