The measure will now be returned to the House of Delegates for action.
House Bill No. 8-1-1, HD1 intends to restore surviving spouse benefit and another benefit in full.The bill seeks to amend the RPPL No. 7-32 which increased certain social security benefits and also increased the taxable wage base to pay for the increase.The law also implemented an earnings test that resulted in a decrease in benefits for certain citizens who had previously been eligible to receive both the surviving spouse benefit and another benefit in full.Under the present law these citizens received no advanced warning that their benefits would be decreased. The House of Delegates’ version of this Bill amended 41 PNC § 755(c) by implementing two rules regarding those citizens who were eligible to receive both the surviving spouse benefit and another Social Security benefit. First, if a citizen was eligible for those two benefits prior to August 2, 2007 (the date RPPL No. 7-32 was enacted), then he or she would continue to be eligible to receive both benefits in full. However, the second rule specifies that if a citizen was not eligible for the surviving spouse benefit and another benefit prior to the enactment of RPPL No. 7-32, then “the surviving spouse’s benefit shall be reduced by the amount” of the other benefit. As noted above, this amendment is intended to restore the Social Security benefits for those individuals who were eligible to receive them in full.The Senate Committee on Ways and Means report said that it “fully supports this amendment to the Social Security statute, to ensure that those Social Security beneficiaries continue to receive the benefits for which they were previously eligible.”The report said that it finds “ all citizens should eventually be eligible to receive both a surviving spouse benefit and another benefit in full, regardless of whether they were previously eligible to receive both benefits. Thus the Committee also amended 41 PNC § 761 to specify that the earnings test will not apply once the surviving spouse reaches the age of 60.” The committee proposed amendments that stated that ;the person who is receiving retirement benefits shall have his or her retirement benefit reduced by one dollar ($1.00) for each three dollars ($3.00) of wages earned during a quarter in excess of one thousand eight hundred dollars ($1,800). The reduction shall be applied in the quarters following the quarter in which the wages were earned.It also proposes that a person who receives the surviving spouse benefit shall have his surviving spouse benefit reduced by $1.00 for every $3.00 for wages earned in a quarter in excess of one thousand five hundred dollars ($1,500.00), unless: the surviving spouse beneficiary is 60 years old or older; or the surviving spouse beneficiary was eligible for the surviving spouse benefit under section 755 prior to August 2, 2007. The reduction shall be applied in the quarters immediately following the quarter in which the wages were earned and a surviving spouse beneficiary qualifying under subsection (c)(2) shall receive such benefit at the level in existence immediately prior to August 2, 2007, unless such beneficiary received an increase in his surviving spouse benefit as a result of the enactment of RPPL No. 7-32. In the latter case, such beneficiary shall continue to receive that increased benefit.
