‘So many MSEA-SEIU members, some of them no longer with us, made repealing the Social Security Offsets a reality’

Just over 17 years ago, on Nov. 6, 2007, then-MSEA-SEIU vice president-elect Ginette Rivard and MSEA-SEIU retiree member Phil Wolley traveled to Washington, D.C., for a U.S. Senate hearing in support of repealing the Social Security Offsets, the federal laws that have penalized workers for pursuing careers in public service in Maine and throughout our nation. The offsets, formally known as the Windfall Elimination Provision and the Government Pension Offset, for decades have reduced the Social Security benefits, including survivor benefits, of millions of workers who participate in public employee pension systems even though they paid into Social Security.

In an update on that trip for the November 2007 edition of our union’s newspaper, Maine Stater, Ginette described how U.S. Senator Susan Collins, who held the first Senate hearings on repealing the offsets back in 2003, testified that the Social Security Offsets penalize those who can least afford it. “Putting a human face to the issue, Senator Collins shared the story of a 77-year-old Maine woman who cannot afford to retire as a result of these provisions,” wrote Ginette, who, like Senator Collins, is a native of Caribou, Maine.

Back in 2007, dozens of our members submitted testimony to the U.S. Senate calling for repealing the offsets, yet the 2007 legislation didn’t pass. But we never stopped fighting for repeal. Scores of our members kept advocating every year since then to repeal the offsets. It’s been a priority of our union for years.

It took decades of advocacy by our members, including retirees like Phil Wolley, who is no longer with us, and many others, but all of our advocacy to repeal the Social Security Offsets has finally paid off.

Last weekend, Ginette, who serves as an MSEA-SEIU retiree director and chair of our Retirees Steering Committee, traveled once again to our nation’s capital. Only this time, her trip was to The White House to represent our union at the Jan. 5, 2025, signing ceremony where President Joe Biden signed into law the Social Security Fairness Act of 2023. Sponsored by Senator Collins, with Senator Sherrod Brown of Ohio as cosponsor, the Social Security Fairness Act of 2023 officially repeals the Windfall Elimination Provision and Government Pension Offset retroactive to January 2024. Impacted workers finally will receive the benefits they are owed retroactive to January 2024.

“From the moment of the final vote in the U.S. Senate early on the morning of Dec. 21 that sent the Social Security Fairness Act of 2023 to President Biden’s desk, I have been so aware that every single retiree member of our union has played a part in this victory,” Ginette said while on her way back home to Caribou. “To this day, whenever I encounter one of our retiree members, the offsets always come up. Lee Thomas, a member of our Aroostook County Retirees Chapter, was famous for bringing up the offsets after church almost every Sunday. Our retiree members kept this campaign to repeal the offsets alive.”

Ginette reflected on those retirees who are no longer with us but who campaigned so hard to repeal the offsets. “I’m saddened when I think of our retirees who are gone, but not forgotten,” Ginette said. “They, too, helped bring this about.”

Two decades of relentless advocacy by our members preceded the Jan. 5, 2025, repeal of the Social Security Offsets.

In 2004, at the urging of MSEA-SEIU members, delegates to the 2004 National Democratic Convention approved a national platform that included repealing the offsets.

Then in 2008, delegates at our MSEA-SEIU Annual Meeting passed a resolution urging our international union, the Service Employees International Union (SEIU), to keep making the repeal of the offsets a top priority.

In 2009, two years after he attended the U.S. Senate hearing on repealing the offsets, Phil Wolley returned to our nation’s capital to continue advocating for retiree issues as our union’s representative on the SEIU International’s Retiree Advisory Council. Phil and a representative from SEIU met with then-congressman Mike Michaud to thank him and Maine’s entire congressional delegation at the time for supporting repeal. Phil passed away in 2019; he had worked for the Maine State Lottery as a sales representative for 22 years. He was active in our union both while working and in retirement.

In 2007, 2015 and again in 2019, members of the Maine Legislature passed joint resolutions calling on Congress to repeal the offsets by enacting earlier versions of the Social Security Fairness Act of 2023. To be sure, the offsets were federal laws, but our members understood the importance of securing their state legislators’ support as part of this national campaign.

Relating to the 2019 joint resolution passed by the Maine Legislature, MSEA-SEIU Retiree Members Jane L. Gilbert and Jim Betts both spoke at a news conference that year in Augusta in support of repealing the offsets. Jane Gilbert said, “Jim and I have talked to people moving into poverty. If they’re entitled to Social Security, they should be getting it, and they’re not. Their pensions, contrary to popular belief, are not enormous. People need everything they can get to survive in retirement. And that’s why MSEA-SEIU Local 1989 is enthusiastically supporting this resolution.”

Also at the 2019 news conference, Jim Betts said, “I worked 26 years in the public sector and they’re taking Social Security away from me. I only get a portion of it. Same thing with my wife, and because she’s a state employee (she has since retired), should I pass on before her, she will get zero Social Security benefits, survivor benefits (because of the Social Security Offsets). This is not right. I estimate close to $1,000 we’d lose and being on a fixed income, that’s a lot of money.”

MSEA-SEIU retiree member and then-state representative Donna Doore also spoke at the 2019 news conference about the impact of the Social Security Offsets on her and her family. Donna passed away three years later, in January of 2022, after a long battle with cancer. A former legislator and member of both the Augusta Board of Education and Augusta City Council, Donna had worked for 34 years for the Maine Bureau of Motor Vehicles. She was a fierce advocate for quality services, the workers who provide them and retiree issues.

In 2021, the MSEA-SEIU Retirees Steering Committee sponsored a tele-town hall with U.S. Senator Angus King at which members asked him to support repealing the Social Security Offsets. Our members followed up with personal letters to Senator King in support of repeal. Then-MSEA-SEIU president Dean Staffieri said at the time, “There are many laws that rig the economy against workers, active and retired, yet the Social Security Offsets are among the most vile and pernicious laws on the books. The Social Security Offsets literally rob retired public workers and their families of Social Security benefits they earned and paid for throughout their careers. It’s past time to repeal these unfair laws NOW.”

In 2022, MSEA-SEIU Retire Member Penny Whitney-Asdourian began serving as our lead contact on a new grassroots national coalition to repeal the offsets. Penny recruited fellow MSEA-SEIU members Robyn Egan, J.B. Whipple and Lisa Flanders to join her on a trip to Washington, D.C., to continue our advocacy for repealing the offsets and to thank Senator King for supporting repeal. At a rally in our nation’s capital, Penny said, “We believe that this is the year and this is the Congress that can finally provide some real relief to seniors all across this country by repealing the Windfall Elimination Provision and the Government Pension Offset, both of which unfairly punish people who chose careers in public service – careers where there are no 401k programs, no stock options and certainly no golden parachute packages. I want to thank all of you for being here, for being part of the repeal movement, and I encourage you to grasp your power and tell your story.”

Penny also participated in meetings with Maine’s grassroots coalition leadership and in Zoom meetings with Congresswoman Chellie Pingree, Congresswoman Jared Golden and Senator Collins to help build support for the Social Security Fairness Act of 2023. In recognition of her lifetime of advocacy for quality services and current and retired workers, including her work to repeal the offsets, Penny received our 2024 MSEA-SEIU Lifetime Achievement Award. Since then, she has become the president of our Southern Maine Retirees Chapter.

Also advocating for years to repeal the offsets was MSEA-SEIU Eastern Maine Retirees Chapter Member Tony Gonzales of Milo. He worked for MaineDOT for 25 years, retiring in 2018. Prior to that, he worked for 20 years in the private sector, where he paid into the Social Security system.

“In April of 2018, my Social Security benefits statement said I would receive $1,000 a month,” Tony said. However, “when I retired, I was informed that because of the Windfall Elimination Provision, I would receive 40% of the $1,000 a month that I paid for — $400 instead of $1,000! I have paid a $600 monthly penalty now for going on seven years. I pay close attention to my expenses as they rise at multiples of what my income does. I heat my home with wood, getting up in the night to feed the boiler, heat pumps and very little oil. The $600 a month that I paid for but that I currently don’t get will make my life easier. I would like to thank all of the people involved for doing what’s right. That is the right thing to do. Thank you again for righting this wrong. I only want the benefit I paid for.”

With the passage of the Social Security Fairness Act of 2023 by the U.S. House of Representatives on Nov. 12, 2024, MSEA-SEIU President Mark Brunton called on Maine’s entire congressional delegation to keep fighting to get the offsets repeal over the finish line. On Jan. 5, 2025, President Brunton thanked President Biden and our congressional delegation – Senators Collins and King, Congresswoman Pingree and Congressman Golden, for all of their advocacy and hard work to secure repeal. He also thanked all of our active and retired members “who kept the pressure on elected officials. Their sustained effort made this happen.”

After a snowstorm delayed her flight back to Caribou following the signing of the Social Security Fairness Act of 2023 into law, Ginette said it took all of our members’ advocacy over the past two decades to finally repeal the offsets. She is ecstatic that our advocacy will strengthen the retirement security of current and future public services retirees and their families.

“In addition to being thrilled knowing that retirees who have been harmed by the offsets will finally start receiving the full Social Security benefits that they paid into, others on my mind are the public workers who have been and perhaps still are approaching retirement with uncertainty. We’ve all received those estimates from the Social Security Administration. Now they can plan their retirement with real numbers without having to endure the penalties that have been inflicted on so many by the Windfall Elimination and Government Pension Offsets. I’m filled with pride that our members, and our union, persisted all these years to repeal the offsets. This was never about one action, one effort or one person. We always focused on the end goal.”

Across our nation, nearly 3 million workers have been harmed by the Windfall Elimination Provision and the Government Pension Offset. Over 21,000 Maine workers were penalized by the WEP, according to a Congressional Research Service report dated Feb. 28, 2024. Over 8,000 Mainers were penalized by the GPO as of December 2023, according to a report by the National Active and Retired Federal Employees Association.

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UPDATE! The Social Security Administration on Jan. 6, 2025, posted the following update on its website:

The Social Security Fairness Act, HR 82, concerning the Windfall Elimination Provision and Government Pension Offset, was signed into law on January 5, 2025. Upon implementation, the Social Security Fairness Act eliminates the reduction of Social Security benefits while entitled to public pensions from work not covered by Social Security. The Social Security Administration is evaluating how to implement the Act. We will provide more information as soon as available.

I previously filed for Social Security benefits and they are partially or completely offset.

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I have not previously filed for Social Security benefits.

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