In 1983, President Reagan signed into law legislation known as the “Social Security Amendments Act of 1983.” Included was the Windfall Elimination Provision. The Windfall Elimination Provision was a measure designed to drastically alter the way in which the Social Security Administration determined monthly Social Security retirement benefits for applicants who were already receiving public service pensions not covered by Social Security.

It was Congress’s intent in passing the WEP that state and local government employees — police officers, firefighters, public school teachers, general works employees, etc. — who spent most of their working lives in public service yet had reached the requisite 40 quarters (10 years) of employment covered by Social Security, be penalized when applying for Social Security benefits. WEP required that their monthly Social Security benefits be reduced by up to half of what they rightfully earned and would otherwise have received if not for WEP.

On Jan. 5, 2025, President Biden signed into law legislation known as the “Social Security Fairness Act of 2023.” This law specifically repealed the 40-year-old WEP and gave those affected retroactive benefits for all of calendar year 2024. With the new law, the SSA has recalculated the monthly benefits for some 3 million people and many — including me — will see their monthly benefit increase by 50 percent.

It needs to be made clear that the new law doesn’t “give” me, or anyone else, anything which isn’t rightfully deserved. My monthly benefit going forward will only be what I should have been receiving for the past 17 years. I’m grateful that the government finally repealed a law that purposely discriminated against and hurt a certain class of American citizens. But that repeal, alone, is not enough. Congress should not just close the book and move on. It should seriously consider making WEP’s victims whole again. I believe our government must make true and full reparations for the wrong it intentionally inflicted on millions of people for four decades. I know to the penny just how much the SSA, under the guise of WEP, stole from me since 2007… $59,128.00. And that’s exactly how much the SSA owes me in reparations.

L. Ernie Foucault

Kresgeville

Ernie Foucault is a San Francisco native, a retired San Diego police sergeant, and a former California-licensed private investigator.