At the beginning of this year, the Social Security Fairness Act officially went into full effect, and, as a result, millions of public-sector employees now have their full benefits restored. This is because the Social Security Fairness Act repealed the provisions of both the Windfall Elimination Provision (WEP) and the Government Pension Offset (GPO).
In addition to having their full benefits restored, the impacted beneficiaries have also received a one-time retroactive lump-sum payment to make up for prior reductions in benefits.
As of the first week of July, the Social Security Administration (SSA) has officially completed processing all Social Security Fairness Act claims. Here is what you need to know.
SSA achieves milestone with Social Security Fairness Act claims
By taking effect, the Social Security Fairness Act brought an end to the WEP and the GPO. Under the WEP, benefits were reduced for certain public-sector employees because they had non-covered pensions from their employers. In parallel, the GPO caused Social Security benefits to be reduced by two-thirds of the government pension held by the worker, with the GPO directly impacting spouses and surviving spouses as well.
According to the SSA, the following public-sector employees will now have their full benefits restored under the new Fairness Act:
- Teachers, firefighters, and police officers in many states;
- Federal employees covered by the Civil Service Retirement System; and
- People whose work had been covered by a foreign social security system.
The impacted cohort will also receive a retroactive lump-sum payment dating back to January 2024, reflecting amounts that were previously withheld.
When the SSFA was being signed into law, the Biden administration—which was still in office at the time—estimated that processing all of these cases would take upwards of a year to complete.
The SSA, for its part, projected early November 2025 as the finish date to process all SSFA-related claims. The agency began making payments and adjusting claims in February, moving cases through the system as quickly as possible while reviewing eligibility.
In the interim, Frank Bisignano was appointed as the new Commissioner of the SSA in May, and, as such, one of Bisignano’s first tasks to oversee as Commissioner was the SSFA claims process.
At the time, Bisignano said he aimed to clear all SSFA-related cases by July, and a July 7 update from the SSA confirmed that all SSFA cases have indeed been processed five months ahead of schedule.
“My top priority is to transform SSA into a model of excellence—an organization that operates at peak efficiency and delivers outstanding service to every American,” Commissioner Bisignano said in the July 7 update.
“The American people have waited long enough for better service, and they deserve the absolute best from their government. I am deeply grateful to our dedicated employees who are already making this turnaround a reality.”
Trustees cite SSFA as one of three reasons behind the program’s accelerated shortfall
The latest annual report from the Social Security Board of Trustees bears bad news for the program’s long-term funding. The Old-Age and Survivors Insurance (OASI) trust fund is projected to be exhausted as soon as 2033 if there is no congressional intervention now.
If this major trust fund is depleted, the remaining revenue in the program would be sufficient to cover only 77% of all scheduled benefits, meaning beneficiaries would face an automatic cut to their monthly income.
The trustees have cited three main reasons for the worsening of the program’s finances, with the SSFA listed as the first:
“The repeal of these provisions increased projected Social Security benefit levels for some workers, relative to projected benefit levels in last year’s report. The impact of this legislation on the OASI Trust Fund was the primary contributor to the change in the combined OASDI fund depletion date this year,” the trustees wrote in the report.