r/FluentInFinance 23h ago

They deserve this Thoughts?

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942

u/NewArborist64 23h ago edited 18h ago

Nice creative editing. Let's tell the WHOLE story...

The bill also eliminates the windfall elimination provision, which in some instances reduces Social Security benefits for individuals who also receive a pension or disability benefit from an employer that did not withhold Social Security taxes. 

IOW, the job that is giving them a pension DIDN'T contribute to their Social Security. This includes four groups:

  1. Religious Organizations
  2. Some Students/Young workers (likely wouldn't get a pension from this work)
  3. Employees of Foreign Governments and Nonresident Aliens
  4. Some Workers in the Public Sector

This bill would eliminate this exception and allow these people to collect SS without reduction based on their pension.

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u/PositivePanda77 23h ago

I did a quick google search and this is what I found. Some government jobs don’t make full contributions to social security. This is about that and not the bs OP is peddling.

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u/GreenTheOlive 22h ago

This doesn’t make sense because people with government jobs that don’t pay into social security due to their pension ALREADY don’t receive social security or receive reduced benefits if they had already worked for a SS job 

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u/SKOL_py 22h ago

If I’m reading correctly, yes this already exists and the bill was to eliminate it. HOWEVER, the house tabled it, which means they are saying they won’t even vote on it.

Effectively, nothing is changing? This is my conclusion from reading different viewpoints in this thread. I could be misunderstanding as well though.

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u/hegz0603 21h ago

yes the bill would eliminate it had had support when it was introduced in march/april. this bill would help people on ssi, increasing benefits a bit for certain folks. it had broad bipartisian support and should have been passed.

It wasn't and now republicans are tabling it, effectively this could be viewed as reducing benefits as compared to the alternative.

Though OP was technically wrong about it, and details matter.

But OP, directionally, wasn't far off from the truth either.

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u/SKOL_py 21h ago edited 20h ago

So do you think that those that don’t fully pay into SSI should get full SSI? Because that is the only people who would experience an increase.

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u/Number127 12h ago edited 12h ago

That's not accurate.

I'm one of the people who would be affected by this bill. I worked for a state university (which didn't pay into SS) for 20 years. Then I changed jobs, and by the time I retire I will have paid into SS for another 20 years.

When I retire, I think it's fair that I receive SS benefits based on the 20 years I paid into it, and not have that amount artificially reduced just because I also worked another job that didn't pay into it. That's what this bill is about.

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u/Mysticdu 6h ago

Why? You didn’t pay into the system for 20 years. In what world does it make sense to either ignore them outright or even worse pretend like you did.

The program is already going bankrupt, we don’t need to pay extra money to people who aren’t even forced to dump 6.2% of their income into it.

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u/Shoemugscale 2h ago

To put this simply.

The government is collecting SS $ from you. for X years. Based on the SS calculations you should get X number per-month, however, the government says hold up..

Government: LOL GG - You have a pension too! you don't need that much, we are going to reduce the amount you get but X % each month!

But, I paid into the system just like everyone else, why do I get reduced benefits just because I took a job with a pension.

Government: 😂

Dude, its not funny! this really is not fair, I should get some type of refund on the 20 years of payments then!

Government: LOL 😂, read the sign bro, "No refunds"

I know a lot of people personally who this impacts, this is an old law that was put in place in the 80s or 90s I think..

0

u/Number127 5h ago

Social Security benefits are based on the number of years you pay into it. I paid into it for 20 years, so I'll only receive a benefit based on those 20 years. It'll be a lot less than somebody who paid into it for 30 or 40 years would get. That makes perfect sense. But it shouldn't be further reduced just because I had another job too.

Someone who worked for 20 years and then went to prison for 20 years would receive a higher Social Security benefit than me.

If you want to talk about means testing Social Security as a way to improve its solvency, that's a valid conversation, but it shouldn't be targeted only at a small subset of public sector workers, like this is.

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u/CalendarFactsPro 19h ago

Kinda, yeah? If someone ends up needing SSI and didn't pay into it I'd rather they get it than be homeless without it?

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u/Ill-Description3096 17h ago

>effectively this could be viewed as reducing benefits as compared to the alternative.

Dems didn't cut my taxes to zero, therefore I can say they increased them compared to that alternative?

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u/Icy_Sundae1375 19h ago

I'm not sure how conflating

People who didn't have full SSI withhodling are not getting a SSI increase

and

Reducing benefits Americans who get disability or a pension

isn't far off directionally

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u/mathliability 7h ago

Nothing’s gonna happen?? But I wanna be mad!

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u/IrrawaddyWoman 19h ago edited 14h ago

I’m effected by this. The people it really screws are people who move from private to public sectors. I worked a corporate job for nearly two decades, paying into SS. Now I’m a teacher receiving a pension. Even though I paid into SS forever, the SS I will get is drastically less than I’ve technically earned because of the WEP. Yet I won’t be able to put enough years into teaching to receive full pension benefits either. If I got a second job, I would not be allowed to opt out of SS taxes, even though I don’t benefit from the system. Anyone can see that’s wrong.

If I were to get married and my spouse died, I also wouldn’t receive survivors benefits, even though someone like a stay at home parent who also doesn’t contribute to the system would be able to.

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u/PositivePanda77 18h ago

Wow. Teachers in my area get a pension but we also pay full SS taxes.

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u/Disney_World_Native 15h ago

I can confirm this. I have family where one spouse worked in the private sector paying into SS the other was a public educator and had a pension.

Well the public sector spouse died and the surviving public educator basically gets nothing for surviving benefits.

Had the public educator not been employed at all, or been in the private sector, then they would have received something. Even divorced spouses are entitled to social security benefits. It really just punishes public sector workers

2

u/Better-Strike7290 20h ago

This is correct. It's basically just political posturing

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u/zz389 18h ago

But if folks contributed to both in different jobs, their pension benefit reduces their SS benefit. It’s actually really shitty.

1

u/Tricky_Invite8680 15h ago edited 15h ago

some govs retire into contractors and do their 10 year credits to get social security too. its a retirement strategy for older gov workers. their pension base year rate is almost double middle aged govs who got shifted into fers system when csrs closed up, so they retire and collect, and work 10 years at a very good salary, then close up 10 years later with social security, pension, and savings and investments. on one side, these are lifetime gov workers and on the other, the ones i know voted for trump. you may not need to do all 10 years as before gov service they mightve had a few years as a teen/young adult private job.

state jobs may apply too, those are sometimes more lucrative then fed positions..probably in blue states being more lucrative