Commonwealth government workers, preparing for retirement, have come to me concerned their Social Security benefits are less than expected because of the Windfall Elimination Provision, WEP.<\/p>\n
I understand the bind people are in because of the decision by the Commonwealth government decades ago to keep its workers out of Social Security. Early in my career in Congress I successfully worked to get our government workers transitioned back into this important federal pension system.<\/p>\n
But some government workers, when they start receiving Social Security, are subject to WEP, if they are also collecting benefits from the Northern Mariana Islands Retirement Fund.<\/p>\n
Their situation is not unique. Two million other Americans also have their Social Security reduced because they receive a pension from an employer who did not withhold Social Security taxes.<\/p>\n
For that reason, I am a cosponsor of H.R. 82\u2014the Social Security Fairness Act of 2021\u2014that would eliminate the Windfall Elimination Provision and allow more Marianas retirees to collect their full Social Security benefit.<\/p>\n
And as long as we are on the subject,\u00a0H.R. 82 surpassed 290 cosponsors, receiving enough support to place the bill on the House Consensus Calendar, teeing it up for a possible floor vote in the House in September. The legislation has bipartisan support, with 206 Democratic and 87 Republican cosponsors.<\/p>\n
In the meantime, government workers planning for retirement should consult with the Social Security office for a calculation of their potential benefits. It will be different for each person depending on their work history.<\/p>\n
Social Security also mails a statement every five years to anyone who has not set up an online\u00a0my Social Security\u00a0account (https:\/\/www.ssa.gov\/myaccount\/). The statement gives you a record of your tax contributions and yearly earnings and estimates your future benefit. People over the age of 60 should receive their statement yearly.<\/p>\n
As always, your congressional offices on Saipan, Tinian, and Rota are ready to help you when you have a problem with Social Security or any federal agency.<\/p>\n
Gregorio Kilili Camacho Sablan (Special to the Saipan Tribune)<\/strong> Commonwealth government workers, preparing for retirement, have come to me concerned their Social Security benefits…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":371858,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[23772,7673],"class_list":["post-373119","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-opinion","tag-marianas","tag-ss"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/373119","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=373119"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/373119\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/371858"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=373119"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=373119"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=373119"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nGregorio Kilili Camacho Sablan is a member of the 117th U.S. Congress and is the delegate of the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"