National Treasury Employees Union

The National Treasury Employees Union
901 E Street, N.W., Suite 600
Washington, DC. 20004-2037
(202) 783-4444
November 30, 1998

The National Treasury Employees Union (NTEU) represents more than 150,000 federal employees and their families with a substantial stake in the future of the Social Security system. We are pleased to be part of the debate on the future of the program and look forward to a continuing dialogue with the White House.
The goal of this ongoing debate must be to both strengthen and protect Social Security for future generations. NTEU is concerned about proposals that promote privatization of the Social Security system. Replacing the current system in whole or in part with one that emphasizes privately invested individual accounts injects an element of risk into the future of Social Security for federal employees and their families. NTEU believes there are better, less volatile approaches to strengthening Social Security and ensuring that it will continue to be available for all Americans.
There are two particular Social Security issues of vital importance to federal employees and retirees, application of the Government Pension Offset (GPO) and the Windfall Elimination Provision (WEP) to annuities received by federal employees. These retirement security issues deserve to be addressed during the Social Security debate expected to get underway during the 106th Congress.
The GPO penalizes many recipients of government pensions who are also eligible for Social Security based on a spouse's work record. It reduces the Social Security spouse's or widow's benefit by two-thirds of the amount of the Civil Service Retirement System (CSRS) pension. The effects of this offset are particularly devastating to female federal employees who are often eligible for only meager federal pensions as a result of either interruptions in their careers while raising their families, or working in lower graded positions for most of their careers.
For example, if an elderly widow is eligible for a federal pension of $600 per month, two-thirds of that amount, or $400 must be offset against the Social Security spouse's or widow's benefit to which she may also be entitled. If she is eligible for a $400 Social Security benefit based on her husband's work record, the GPO results in her receiving none of the Social Security benefit her husband earned. This is not an isolated example.
Similarly, the WEP unfairly reduces the pension income of many federal retirees by reducing their own earned Social Security benefit by as much as 50%. A federal employee eligible for both Social Security and a pension from work not covered by Social Security will have a lower benefit formula applied when calculating his or her Social Security unless that individual has at least 30 years of Social Security coverage.
A widow who may have worked ten years under CSRS and ten years in the private sector could find her widow's Social Security benefit offset by the GPO and her own, earned, Social Security benefit offset by the WEP. It seems unlikely that Congress intended to penalize individuals in these situations in such a harsh manner and NTEU is hopeful that inequities such as these will be part of the discussion that begins with your White House Conference on Social Security.