A windfall implies an unexpected gain. Collecting Social Security benefits – money employees have paid into the federal system – during retirement hardly qualifies as a windfall. That’s why Congress needs to revise laws that unfairly penalize some public sector workers, especially those in states like Maine that have their own retirement system.

The provisions – the Windfall Elimination Provision and the Government Pension Offset – were meant to help ease concerns about the financial stability of the Social Security system in the 1980s. The windfall provision reduces Social Security benefits for employees who worked in both the public and private sectors, while the pension offset reduces spousal and survivor benefits.

Proponents of the provisions argued they would ensure retirees didn’t double dip by getting both government pensions and full Social Security benefits. For many retirees who worked in both the private sector – where Social Security taxes were paid by both the employee and the employer – and the public realm – where they were covered by a pension system – the provisions mean these retirees receive far less in benefits than they would if they had spent their career working solely for the government or a private company.

The lost benefits can total $10,000 a year for some retirees, according to the Congressional Budget Office. They affect about a third of teachers and other education employees and one-fifth of other public employees, including firemen and police officers, nationwide.

The benefit reductions especially hurt low-income women. Seventy percent of the 1 million employees affected by the pension offset are women, Sen. Susan Collins said earlier this month at a Senate Finance subcommittee hearing. She cited the example of a 77-year-old substitute teacher from Columbia who can’t afford to fully retire. She will not receive a full pension from the Maine State Retirement System because she was in the system for only 15 years. Despite more than 20 years as a waitress and factory worker, when she paid into Social Security, her benefits were cut by windfall and offset provisions.

The Senate panel is considering legislation to eliminate the provisions by Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., which Sens. Collins and Olympia Snowe have co-sponsored.

A major hurdle is the cost, estimated at $81 billion, of such a repeal. Other senators have proposed scaling back the offsets or phasing out their elimination to reduce the cost. Sen. Collins supports a phase out that begins with the lowest earners first. This would help those most in need of retirement benefits, while lowering the price tag.

It is a good place to start to fix this long-standing problem.