The Social Security Administration (SSA) is making good headway with its rollout of payments for those impacted by the Social Security Fairness Act. After being signed into law in January, the Social Security Fairness Act effectively eliminated the provisions of the Windfall Elimination Provision (WEP) and the Government Pension Offset (GPO) and as a result, around 3 million individuals will now have their full benefits restored to them.
A new update from the SSA has confirmed that around 91% of cases related to the Fairness Act have now been updated.
Social Security Fairness Act adjustments are almost complete
Prior to the Social Security Fairness Act, public sector employees had their benefits reduced since they had received income from public pensions and as a result, they were not required to pay Social Security taxes. Now that the Fairness Act has been signed into law, around 3 million individuals will be able to receive higher benefits, along with a retroactive lump sum dating back to January 2024.
At the beginning of the year, the SSA stated that the impacted cohort would possibly have to wait for more than a year before their payments would be adjusted. A recent agency update, however, shows that 91% of the impacted cases have already been adjusted and the SSA has its automated system to credit for the efficiency.
Whilst the agency has planned to have the adjustments of all of the impacted cases completed by early November, it is “working to exceed its estimate” under new commissioner Frank Bisignano, a SSA official said via email according to CNBC.
“Commissioner Bisignano committed to senators during his confirmation process that this would be finished ‘while the weather is warm’ and he will keep his promise,” the SSA official shared.
The remaining cases waiting to be processed cannot go through automation and have to be adjusted manually due to their complex nature. The manual process of adjusting the benefit claim, as well as processing the retroactive lump sum can take additional time and the SSA is prioritizing the remaining 200,000 complex cases, according to the SSA official.
“The individuals who are still waiting may have unique circumstances,” David A. Weaver, a former Social Security Administration executive and teacher of statistics at the University of South Carolina, observes.
“For example, some eligible beneficiaries who have recently died may qualify for the lump-sum retroactive payments,” says Weaver. “In those circumstances, the Social Security Administration would likely try to issue that money to survivors.”
How much of an increase will these beneficiaries see?
The amount by which a benefit will increase will differ from person to person in relation to what they are eligible for, as is the case for all benefits. According to the SSA, “individuals affected may see monthly Social Security check increases ranging from very little to more than $1,000 per month.”
According to previous estimates from the Congressional Budget Office, as a result of the changes from the Social Security Fairness Act, higher monthly payments ranging from $360 to $1,190 will be seen. Additionally, the impacted cohort will also be on the receiving end of a retroactive lump sum dating as far back as January 2024. “Notably, Social Security benefit payments for January 2024 were received by beneficiaries in February 2024,” as per the SSA.
The SSA official further shared that both the back payments, as well as the increased benefit are processed together for each recipient.
Going forward, as the Fairness Act becomes fully implemented, Weaver feels that the next move should be for Congress to ask the Government Accountability Office to audit this process.
“That may allow for an evaluation of the final administrative costs for processing the benefit changes due to the law, including both the manual cases and additional new claims, as well as phone calls from the public about the changes,” Weaver stated.
“That investigation could also evaluate whether other agency work was sidelined as the benefit changes were processed,” he added.