The Social Security Fairness Act was signed into law by President Biden on January 5, 2025. If you are/were a public sector employee, the legislation will benefit you by repealing two federal provisions enacted 40 years ago: the Windfall Elimination Provision, and the Government Pension Offset. Both provisions had reduced or eliminated Social Security benefits in order to prevent public sector works from “double dipping” into retirement benefits.
What Will Change
Government workers receive pensions and are not covered by Social Security. However, under these two now-repealed laws, their Social Security retirement benefits were reduced or eliminated for any non-public-sector employment covered by Social Security. Their spouses’ benefits and widow/widower’s benefits were similarly reduced if they too received government pensions.
If you are one of the approximately three million Americans impacted by passage of the new law, your Social Security benefits will increase effective January 1, 2025, and you will get retroactive benefits for the year 2024.
The Congressional Budget Office estimates that the average person will receive $360 additional in monthly Social Security by December 2025. Impacted spouses will receive a monthly increase of $700, and surviving spouses, $1,190. The legislation is expected to impact about 4% of all Social Security beneficiaries.
Proponents and Critics
The Social Security Fairness Act was passed with bipartisan support, but it was and still is controversial. Unions and other labor organizations have long supported it, arguing that it restores benefits unfairly taken away from public sector workers. The president of the International Association of Fire Fighters, Edward Kelly, says: “After 40 years of being treated like second-class citizens, a wrong has finally been righted, and millions of retirees can afford to retire with dignity — and with the Social Security benefits they earned and paid into.” And outgoing Senator Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) states, “Social Security is a bedrock of our middle class. You pay into it for 40 quarters, you earned it, it should be there when you retire. All these workers are asking for is for what they earned.”
Predictably, not everyone applauds the new legislation. Critics claim it will send the Social Security system into insolvency sooner than already projected. Other critics argue that the new law is unfair to other workers. For example, The Cato Institute’s Director of Budget and Entitlement Policy, Roman Boccio, says: “Ultimately, while the Fairness Act aims to address perceived inequities, it perpetuates unfairness and does so at the expense of worsening Social Security’s deficits, accelerating trust fund exhaustion, and harming all beneficiaries in the long run.”
What Action Do You Need to Take?
If you qualify for increased benefits under this legislation, you do not need to take any action right now. You do need to make sure that the Social Security Administration has your current mailing address and direct deposit information. Check on your account (or create one) here.
The agency is reviewing exactly how and when it will pay out affected beneficiaries. To see the latest updates, click here.
