The Shadow
Today, the Social Security Administration announced it is immediately beginning to pay
retroactive benefits and will increase monthly benefit payments to people whose benefits
have been affected by the Windfall Elimination Provision (WEP) and Government
Pension Offset (GPO). These provisions reduced or eliminated the Social Security
benefits for over 3.2 million people who receive a pension based on work that was not
covered by Social Security (a “non-covered pension”) because they did not pay Social
Security taxes. The Social Security Fairness Act ends WEP and GPO.
“Social Security’s aggressive schedule to start issuing retroactive payments in February
and increase monthly benefit payments beginning in April supports President Trump’s
priority to implement the Social Security Fairness Act as quickly as possible,” said Lee
Dudek, Acting Commissioner of Social Security. “The agency’s original estimate of
taking a year or more now will only apply to complex cases that cannot be processed by
automation. The American people deserve to get their due benefits as quickly as
possible.”
People who will benefit from the new law include some 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.
Many beneficiaries will be due a retroactive payment because the WEP and GPO offset
no longer apply as of January 2024. Most people will receive their one-time retroactive
payment by the end of March, which will be deposited into their bank account on record
with Social Security.
Many of these people will also receive higher monthly benefits, which will first be
reflected in the benefit payment they receive in April. Depending on factors such as the
type of Social Security benefit received and the amount of the person’s pension, the
change in payment amount will vary from person to person.
Anyone whose monthly benefit is adjusted, or who will get a retroactive payment, will
receive a mailed notice from Social Security explaining the benefit change or retroactive
payment. Most people will receive their retroactive payment two to three weeks before
they receive their notice in the mail, because the President understands how important it
is to pay people what they are due right away. Social Security is expediting payments
using automation and will continue to handle many complex cases that must be done
manually, on an individual case-by-case basis. Those complex cases will take additional
time to update the beneficiary record and pay the correct benefits.
Social Security urges beneficiaries to wait until April to ask about the status of their
retroactive payment, since these payments will process incrementally into March. Since
the new monthly payment amount will begin with the April payment, beneficiaries
should wait until after receiving their April payment, before contacting Social Security
with questions about their monthly benefit amount.
Visit the agency’s Social Security Fairness Act webpage to learn more and stay up to date
on its progress. Visitors can subscribe to be alerted when the webpage is updated.
