At the beginning of the year, the Social Security Fairness Act was signed into effect and as a result, millions of Americans who had previously had their benefits reduced will now have their full benefits restored to them.
The Social Security Administration (SSA) has managed to expedite the process of adjusting the benefit claims of the impacted individuals due to the automated system in use at the agency. As a result, the vast majority of cases that have been impacted by the Social Security Fairness Act have already been updated.
The SSA has issued an update regarding the remainder of cases that are still in the process of being updated.
What is the Social Security Fairness Act?
By coming into effect, the Social Security Fairness Act effectively repealed two provisions — namely, the Windfall Elimination Provision (WEP) and the Government Pension Offset (GPO) — which limited retirement benefits for a certain cohort of public sector workers such as teachers, firefighters, police officers, and some federal employees. Under the new Fairness Act, this cohort, which consists of close to 3 million individuals, will now have their full benefits restored to them.
Additionally, a one time retroactive lump sum payment dating back to December 2023 will also be sent out to the impacted beneficiaries.
Prior to the Fairness Act being signed into law, individuals with public sector employment who were receiving pensions from their employer were not required to make contributions toward Social Security payroll taxes as a result of the Windfall Elimination Provision (WEP). Typically, state and federal employees were impacted by this and this reduction was applied even if they qualified for Social Security benefits as a result of alternate employment.
Under the Government Pension Offset (GPO), federal, state, and local government workers had their spousal or survivor benefits reduced since they had not used their payroll taxes to pay into Social Security funds.
When will the Social Security Administration have all impacted cases updated?
Currently, the SSA has confirmed that 91% of the impacted individuals have had their cases updated and as a result are now receiving their full benefits. The remaining 9% of cases is taking a little longer to process as they are more complex. Additionally, in April, the SSA confirmed that over $14.8 billion in retroactive payments have already been paid to the impacted parties.
In an update on the official SSA website, the agency stated that, “For the many complex cases that cannot be processed automatically, additional time is required to manually update the records and pay both retroactive benefits and the new benefits amount. We are expediting these cases now.”
Subsequently, if you are still owed a payment but have not yet received it, the SSA will send you a notice regarding the matter.
The newly elected SSA Commissioner Frank Bisignano has expressed a desire to have all outstanding Social Security Fairness Act claims updated by July 1, and has directed staff to prioritize these claims over other queries — as per a report in USA Today.
It has further been reported that some SSA employees have been offered overtime to work on both Saturdays and Sundays as they work towards resolving this matter. Whilst Commissioner Bisignano is working towards resolving all cases by July, the SSA has said on its website that the expectation is that “all beneficiary records will be updated by early November 2025.” The agency also noted that the adjusted benefit amounts, as well as the retroactive payments are being released “as we process each case.”
In a press release from April 29, the SSA stated that, “SSA has made significant strides in implementing the Social Security Fairness Act, having paid over $14.8 billion in retroactive payments to more than 2.2 million individuals affected by the Windfall Elimination Provision and Government Pension Offset. Under President [Donald] Trump’s leadership, the agency’s original estimate of taking a year or more to issue payments now will apply to only complex cases that cannot be processed by automation.”