“This tax has unfairly penalized Eastern North Carolina’s seniors for too long,” Jones said. “Today’s vote is a victory for our seniors who need to work or who choose to work.”

H.R. 5, the Senior Citizens’ Freedom to Work Act, would eliminate the penalty on Social Security recipients between the ages of 65 and 69 who currently lose their benefits by working. Each year, more than 800,000 Social Security recipients lost $1 in benefits for every $3 they earn in wages over the imposed $17,000 annual earnings limit.
 
“The Social Security earnings limit hurts thousands of North Carolina’s working seniors each year, especially those who are struggling to pay significant medical bills. I am proud to have voted to retire the penalty on working seniors and reward our seniors for a lifetime of hard work,” Jones said.

The House voted unanimously on March 1 to pass H.R. 5 and repeal the Social Security earnings limit. Last week, the Senate incorporated a provision into the bill that applies the higher retirement-earnings threshold to seniors a month before they hit retirement age. A separate earnings threshold applies to beneficiaries under the age of 65, which reduces benefits by $1 for very $2 of earnings above the pre-retirement earnings threshold of $10,080 in 2000. 

The President is expected to sign H.R. 5 into law in the next few weeks.