Brotherhood of Railway, Airline and Steamship Hotel and Restaurant Employees and Bartenders Seafarers' International Union of North America Transport Workers Union of America United Transportation Union The organizations affiliated with the Railway Labor Executives' Association are: American Railway Supervisors'. Association American Train Dispatchers' Association Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers Brotherhood of Railroad Signalmen Brotherhood Railway Carmen of the United Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters International Association of Machinists International Brotherhood of Boilermakers, Both the organizations affiliated with the Congress of Railway Unions and those affiliated with the Railway Labor Executives' Association unanimously and vigorously support S. 3852. S. 3852 provides the same 20 per cent increase in Railroad Retirement benefits that was recently provided to beneficiaries under the Social Security Act. It, of course, does not provide a 20 per cent increase in supplemental annuities, of which there are now approximately 93,000 beneficiaries, nor does it provide for cost-of-living increases in the future, as the Social Security legislation does; . furthermore, the increased 4 benefits are on a temporary basis which will expire on June 30, 1973, just as will the temporary 10 per cent increase in benefits provided by Public Law 92-46 and the temporary 15 per cent increase provided by Public Law 91-377. The 20 per cent increase in benefits provided by S. 3852 is just a matter of simple equity. Almost a third of the beneficiaries under the Railroad Retirement Act get an increase of 20 per cent or nearly that as a direct result of the enactment of the amendments to the Social Security Act. These increases have not yet been paid but they will be paid with respect to annuities accruing after August 1972 as a result of legislation now on the books. The latest figures I have pertain to March 1972 and they show that, in that month, there were approximately 1,085,000 monthly benefits being paid, but of these some 93,000 were supplemental annuities and, therefore, duplicated, in number, regular employee annuities. Thus, there were less than a million monthly beneficiaries. Currently, 255,000 Railroad Retirement annuitants are being paid under the overall social security minimum guarantee, whịch assures them a minimum benefit of 110 per cent of the benefit they would get if their railroad employment had been subject to social security. All these beneficiaries will get, by reason of legislation now on the books, a 20 per cent increase in their benefits, effective September 1, 1972. In addition, the Social Security Act amendments will have the effect of raising the maximum spouse's benefit under the Railroad Retirement Act from $151.70 to $182.10, effective with September 1972. The reason for this is that, although the Railroad Retirement Act provides for a spouse's annuity equal to one half of the employee annuity, there is a ceiling which artificially limits the spouse's annuity to 110 per cent of what could be paid in such month to a wife under the Social Security Act. Thus, when the amendments to the Social Security Act liberalized the payments available to wives, they automatically brought about an increase in benefits to all spouses now being paid the maximum spouse's benefit under the Railroad these. Retirement Act. There are nearly 30,000 of 6 It thus appears that approximately 285,000 of our beneficiaries, numbering less than a million, already have the increase that this bill would provide . for our other beneficiaries. We do not seek now to provide for future cost-of-living increases in benefitis under the Railroad Retirement Act, even though such increases are provided under the Social Security Act. Nor do we seek now to make the 20 per cent increase permanent any more than we are now trying to make permanent the previous 15 per cent increase and 10 per cent increase. As the Subcommittee is well aware, the Commission i on Railroad Retirement has completed its study and its report, together with qualifying statements and a dissent, is now in the course of being printed. There is no doubt that in the course of the next session of Congress the Congress will have to give careful consideration to the future of the Railroad Retirement system, both as to benefits and as to financing. However, the inequities created by the Social Security legislation, under which almost a third of present beneficiaries get an immediate 20 per cent increase, must be corrected promptly. This requires the immediate enactment of S. 3852. |