Action Alert #59 Important Strategic Action Needed
Important, Strategic Action Needed You can help now!
Social Security support groups are beginning to align their messages toward making the Social Security system stronger and fairer. Right now is a perfect time to tell these groups that in order to make the system fair to all, the Government Pension Offset (GPO) and the Windfall Elimination Provision (WEP) must be repealed!
Please use the quick links below to make your statement. We know we need to reach many more supporters! Can you suggest other groups which might support our cause? Please email us at ssfairness@gmail.com.
Our last Alert inspired nearly 200 of you to click on the President’s message box. Thank you! We critically need to build our ability to get noticed! Have you saved your personal story on your desktop where it will be easy to send out again and again? Below are some facts that you might include in your statement, followed by three groups that need to hear from us.
ACTION REQUESTED: Write the NCPSSM, the Alliance for Retired Americans and the ARRP, using your story and/or below listed facts.
- 1/5 of all public employees and 1/3 of all teachers risk being penalized by GPO/WEP in their retirement, losing some or all of the SS benefits for which they or their spouse paid the required SS taxes. Currently more than 2 million Americans are penalized.
- It is possible to pay as much as $90,000 in SS taxes and receive not one dime in SS benefits, due to GPO and WEP. GPO/WEP discriminate against women, often causing extreme hardship. A pension of only $1,500/month can result in total loss of needed survivor benefits.
- GPO/WEP are called Heroes’ Penalties because they undeservedly punish teachers, school bus drivers, clerks, librarians, police, fire fighters and many more public servants.
- The GPO and WEP have caused much more damage to tax-paying individuals than would have been done by the recently proposed chained CPI, which was stalled last year due to vocal outrage.
- Seniors received no benefits from the recent economic stimulus efforts. Giving us what we have earned would be a great way to get more money into local economies.
- Our Social Security benefits have been wrongly taken from us by the penalties of the GPO and WEP. All senior support organizations must realize the degree to which the offsets penalize productive SS tax-paying citizens who have worked to serve their country.
LINKS
1. National Committee to Preserve Social Security and Medicare (NCPSSM)
This is a large, influential support group. They have studied GPO/WEP and found that both provisions are unfair.
Here is a page where they ask for comments: http://www.ncpssm.org/EntitledtoKnow/entryid/2053/taking-a-social-security-victory-lap
2. Alliance for Retired Americans
This group has branches in many states, often attracting retired union members. Although their leadership understands our issue, many of them don’t know how unfair this is: we or our spouses had no choice whether or not to pay FICA taxes, most of us don’t have very big pensions, we weren’t warned about the penalties. Let them know how this has hit you!
Contact them here:
http://retiredamericans.org/contact
3. AARP
If you are a member of AARP, please write them about GPO/WEP again.
Here is an interesting link to their tool to help you decide what policy changes you would chose to close the Social Security funding gap.
If it has been two months since you have written your Congress Person and Senators about this issue, please write them again!
Thank you for sticking with this project! We will keep making noise about this travesty.