President Joe Biden, after signing the law on social security in the White House on January 5 in Washington, DC, DC
Kent Nishimura | Getty Images News | Getty pictures
The biggest changes to social security in years were signed in the law on January 5.
This means larger performance tests for more than 3.2 million people. In some cases, the change qualifies for social security benefits.
The new law, the law on the fairness of social security, raises two provisions that have previously reduced social security benefits for people who had to receive pension income on work in which employers did not have to retain wage taxes.
They were the elimination determined in 1983, which was signed in the law in 1977. They were federal laws that reduced the social security benefits for people who received pensions from unexpected employment. Both were lifted from the law on social security fairness.
Those affected include certain teachers, firefighters and police officers, federal employees and employees who are covered by a foreign social security system.
According to the social security administration, “very little” up to more than 1,000 US dollars per month can be “very little” to more than $ 1,000 per month.
These increases apply to future monthly checks and retrospective services that have been paid since January 2024.
The social security administration “expects it to take more than a year to adapt the services and pay all retrospective services,” says the agency on its website.
Lawyers who fought for the change for years – some of which increase their own advantages – say that the signing of the bill was a victory, even so many beneficiaries have an unlimited waiting period of the additional money.
“It will take some time,” said a former teacher about the changes
Roger Boudreau, a 75-year-old former English teacher and president of the Rhode Island American Federation of Teachers Renters Chapter, had been in the White House for the past 50 years through his work in Union activism.
But experiencing the signing of the law on social security in January was the “highlight of my life,” he said.
When Boudreau dies, he hopes that his role as a founding member of the National WEP/GPO Repeal Task Force will be included in his obituary.
“It was such an incredibly important law that so many people who have been so deeply wrong for so many years,” said Boudreau. (Of course, many experts for pension policy reject the new guideline.)
Boudreau estimates that he has personally lost around 5,000 US dollars a year in retirement, since he has had a penalty of around 40% in the past ten years towards his earned advantages.
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Boudreau taught a variety of topics for 30 years, including world and British literature and earned a pension for retirement.
In order to add his income, he took over a variety of additional jobs in which he was paid into social security, worked as a taxi driver, sold swimming pools and helps in bakeries during the holidays.
“When I started teaching in 1971, my salary was 7,000 US dollars [a year]”Boudreau said.” I had a child. If I had two, I would have entitled to food brands. “
In addition to the additional work during class, he also paid in social security when he worked in the high school and college. If Boudreau had income for two more years, he could have escaped the punishment for his achievements, he said.
Now he is waiting for social security management to find out how great his benefit will be.
“We understand that it will take some time,” said Boudreau, who also serves as a task force connection to the American Federation of the teachers.
In the meantime, the group advises their pensioners to make appointments with their local social security office to ensure that their information is up to date.
Firefighter hoped that advantages in retirement would help
Carl Jordan, a retired canton, Ohio, fire brigade captain, first found that his social security benefits were reduced if he retired.
The reductions were a surprise for Jordan, who began over a 33-year career as a fireman and worked as a doctor and finally working as a captain.
While he earned a pension from this work, he also got out of other work through other work. He began as a phlebotomist who worked in blood donation and then trained as an apheresis technician to collect blood products for the treatment of cancer and other diseases.
“The whole reason for me to work on the second job was that he contributed to the community, and it also helped me take care of my family,” said Jordan.
“Firefighters weren't that great, and I had hoped that social security would add my retirement income when I arrived there,” he said.
Today, the 73 -year -old Jordan estimates that the reduction cost him about 2½ years with his mortgage or about 27,000 US dollars without interest.
The money for additional social security will help him pay this mortgage a little earlier than expected and pay for improvements at home, he said.
Nevertheless, he doesn't know exactly how much more advantages he will receive.
Jordan, who took part in the legislative template in Washington, DC, spoke there to a social security administrator who could no longer offer any more information about the time or the amount of the services. A month later, he is still waiting for further information from the agency.
Nevertheless, Jordan said that he was proud to experience a change that he had never expected in his life, even after he was committed to it for almost 16 years.
“To be there to represent the job that I had spent with my life with being an experience that everyone should have,” said Jordan.
The 18-year-old campaigned on behalf of his grandmother
Eliseo Jimenez, who went from Lubbock, Texas, to Washington, DC, to discuss questions of social security with government officials, after the introduction of President Joe Biden, drives in the White House during a signing of social security for social security Fairness Act .
Chris Kleponis | AFP | Getty pictures
At the age of 18, Eliseo Jimenez from Lubbock, Texas, can be the youngest who campaigned for the law on social security.
His grandmother, a former teacher, mainly had to rely on her own pension before the new law. Other family members who work in law enforcement were also affected by the provisions.
In order to draw attention to the need for changes, Jimenez spent 40 days from Texas to Washington, DC last summer because he was under 18 at that time, he could not check in in hotels or motels, which forced him to sleep outside For several nights.
His efforts have contributed to drawing the topic aware, he said.
“I had a lot of people who send me an email and call me, supported me and supported the invoice myself,” said Jimenez.
Last month, Jimenez returned to Washington, DC, this time to observe the signing of the law on social security. At the event, President Joe Biden led a choir of other legislators and participants to sing Jimenez “Happy Birthday”. It was “pretty cool,” he said.
Since the changes to the law, he heard from his grandmother, neighbors and inhabitants from other countries such as Virginia and Tennessee that are affected.
“They said it was amazing,” said Jimenez. “It is life -changing.”
Jimenez, a high school senior, has inspired the victory, who wants to visit college next year to continue to urge the reform of social security. He plans to take another walk in Texas next month to draw attention to the topic.
“I want to be involved,” said Jimenez. “I want to continue to work for it.”
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