At the end of his term in office, former President Joe Biden signed into law the Social Security Fairness Act aimed at restoring the full benefits to several million public sector workers who previously had their benefits reduced. In addition to having their full benefits restored, the impacted cohort of public sector workers had also qualified for a once-off retroactive payment dating back to January 2024. When the Social Security Fairness Act came into effect, the Biden Administration estimated that it would take upwards of a year for all impacted claims to be processed.
The Social Security Administration (SSA) set early November of this year as the end date for the completion of this task. In the interim, Frank Bisignano had been elected to the role of Commissioner at the SSA, and overseeing the processing of Social Security Fairness Act claims had been amongst his first tasks as SSA Commissioner. At the time, Bisignano shared a goal of having all impacted claims processed by July and as per a July update from the agency, the SSA Commissioner’s goal had been fulfilled.
The agency began adjusting the impacted claims and rolling out retroactive checks to qualifying individuals in February, and as of July, all payments and claims have been successfully processed, according to the agency. Here is what you need to know.
What is the Social Security Fairness Act?
By signing the Social Security Fairness Act into law, both the Windfall Elimination Provision (WEP) and the Government Pension Offset (GPO) were effectively repealed. Both the WEP and the GPO were introduced to the Social Security program several decades ago as a means of better maintaining the financial health of the program. Both of these provisions resulted in a cohort of public sector workers or their spouses receiving reduced benefits. These individuals or their spouses had their benefit reduced due to receiving a pension from their employer that was considered “non-covered” by Social Security. Public sector workers such as teachers, firefighters, police offices, and certain federal agents, or their spouses, were impacted by either the WEP or the GPO.
Now that the GPO and the WEP have effectively been repealed by the Social Security Fairness Act, the impacted cohort of some 3 million individuals should now have their full benefits restored to them. Additionally, these individuals will also have qualified for a one time lump sum retroactive payment dating back to January 2024. As of July 7th, the SSA has successfully completed sending out over 3.1 million payments, totaling $17 billion to the impacted beneficiaries. The agency was able to complete this task five months ahead of schedule as well.
“Anyone whose monthly benefit is adjusted, or who will get a past due payment, will receive a mailed notice from Social Security explaining the benefit change or past due payment,” the SSA noted. “A beneficiary may receive two mailed notices, the first when WEP or GPO is removed from their record, and a second when their monthly benefit amount is adjusted for their new monthly payment amount. They may receive the past due payment before receiving the mailed notice.”
What to do if your check is missing
According to the SSA’s July 10th update outlining the Social Security Fairness Act milestone, all ongoing benefits should have been adjusted by July 2025, however, since the agency pays its benefits a month after it is due “you may see the change in your benefit with the payment received in August 2025.”
If your claim has not been adjusted or you are having any other sort of issue or questions regarding your case, the SSA has shared that you should contact them at 1-800-772-1213, Monday through Friday, 8:00 a.m. – 7:00 p.m. local time.