The Senate will soon vote on accelerating the Social Security bankruptcy process

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) announced yesterday that the Senate would vote on the Social Security Fairness Act, which passed the House of Representatives in November. This bill would repeal the Windfall Elimination Provision (WEP) and the Government Pension Offset (GPO), two policies that reduce Social Security benefits for those who are otherwise eligible for government pensions outside of Social Security. The Congressional Budget Office Estimates that passage of this law would accelerate Social Security’s insolvency by six months and increase deficits by $196 billion over a decade.

Due to the advanced insolvency, we assume that a repeal of WEP and GPO would be necessary Reduce lifetime Social Security benefits by $25,000 for the typical couple retiring in bankruptcy, more than $8,000 of that in the first year alone.

The following is a statement from Maya MacGuineas, President of the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget:

It is truly astonishing that at a time when we are just nine years away from fully depleting the trust fund for the largest program in the country, lawmakers would consider expediting this by six months. There is also another $200 billion in new loans. We are hurtling towards our own financial demise.

Even worse, repealing the WEP and GPO does nothing to eliminate the windfall benefits they are intended to eliminate—instead, it just restores the windfall benefits to people who receive other public pensions. What an incredulous series of events.

Accelerating Social Security bankruptcy will only worsen its consequences; Benefits will be cut by another percent, while lifetime benefits will be cut by $25,000 for a typical couple. We should talk about how we can prevent this disruption instead of making it bigger and earlier.

The Senate should reject the repeal of WEP and GPO. Instead, they should come together and try to resolve the problems with WEP and GPO as part of a comprehensive package to strengthen Social Security, prevent bankruptcies and make the program’s finances sustainable over the long term.

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For further information, please contact Matt Klucher, Associate Director of Media Relations, at [email protected].