Restore act on 'notch babies'

I would like to bring to light an egregious wrong that was done those of "The Greatest Generation" who were born in the years of 1917 through 1921.

This group was known as "notch babies." The term "notch" refers to a disparity in benefits that resulted when Congress changed the Social Security Benefit Formula in 1977. Notch babies were affected by this inequity from their first Social Security check.

According to The Senior Citizens League studies, this disparity cost notch babies

an average of $1,000 to as much as $3,000 per year in lower benefits. The notch continues to this day because Congress has yet to enact legislation to correct it.

Congress and the GAO and the federal government from the years 1995-2004 used more than $1.4 trillion in surplus Social Security revenues that could have been used to pay notch reform benefits to fund other government spending.

Now, after the powers that be held out long enough and those who were entitled to being compensated with backpay have died, the TSCL had pushed for "The Notch Fairness Act" (H. R. 368). The Legislation would give notch babies born in the years 1917 through 1921 their choice of a lump sum of $5,000 payable in four annual installments or an improved monthly benefit.

We who are children of notch babies should receive the compensation that our parents were denied.

So any children of notch babies that read this, we need to contact our congressperson and tell them to reintroduce The Notch Fairness Act.

David Kumpula

Hoffman Estates