Karen Antonelli

I was an English teacher at East Providence High School for 34 years. I retired in 2004, my husband receives Social Security. I have enough quarters from other work to receive Social Security but I cannot because I was an East Providence teacher and the Federal Windfall Act prohibits me form collecting what I earned. I planned a retirement based on the promised COLA and thought our future would be secure. After 7 years of retirement the COLA was stopped and my pension has not had an increase since 2011. For 12 years we have had to adjust our living downward. If my husmand should pass away I will not be eligible to collect his Social Security so my income will be reduced by $2,039.

WE have put two children through college, paid all of our bills and every year it has become increasingly more difficult. I reme ber asking the the East Providence Administration when I was hired at 22 years old why there was no Social Securiy taken out of our pay. The answer was "You will not neeed Social Security because you have a pension that will provide a cost of living increase every year". 11% of my pay went to the pension fund while I wiorked, imagine if I had been able to put that into a 401kfund? Now the security promised is gone, no provisions were made for already retired teachers during the pension reform. Rhode Island retired teachers are the forgotten senior citizens who lived up to their part of the contract with the stae of Rhode Island.

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