Dave Bernstein, a former U.S. Postal Service worker, has found his retirement to be less secure than he had hoped. When he retired in 1992, he and his wife, Phyllis, were shocked to find that his monthly Social Security check was much lower than expected, despite earning the required 40 credits to be fully insured by the program.
However, there is hope on the horizon for Dave and others like him. Some expert analyses suggest a more effective and fair way of handling the disparity. Instead of highly beneficial for non-covered workers, research has found that repealing the current rules altogether would result in Social Security benefits that are simply “overly generous.”
While these rules were intended to treat workers who pay Social Security taxes for their entire careers the same as those who do not, some beneficiaries receive lower benefits than they would have otherwise, while others receive higher benefits, according to the Bipartisan Policy Center.
Instead, bills on Capitol Hill are proposing a proportional approach to income replacement, which may be a more fair and balanced system. This approach seeks to calculate workers’ benefits based on all their earnings and then adjust them to reflect the share of their careers that were in jobs covered by Social Security.
The WEP, GPO, and other factors impacting Social Security can be extremely complex and difficult for folks to understand, especially those preparing for retirement. Perhaps with the introduction of new reform, workers like Dave Bernstein will have better chances to receive the fair benefits they deserve from Social Security, making their retirement more secure and enabling them to truly enjoy their golden years.
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