The United States Social Security Fairness Act has now officially come into force. This new policy measure will increase Social Security benefit payments for current and former public employees who had their benefits reduced because they had “uncovered pensions”, according to the Administration. This new bill will therefore affect millions of people who have worked in public service roles, and, even if you qualify, you may also receive back payments for the whole of 2024.
The American Fairness Act thus eliminates two rules that will result in increased payments for qualifying US Social Security beneficiaries. This would be in addition to Social Security’s recent cost of living adjustment for 2025 , which means a 2.5% increase in payments for people receiving Social Security, Social Security Disability Insurance and Supplemental Security Income . This new law will therefore help to prevent situations of vulnerability and help these groups to alleviate the economic suffocation to which they may be subjected.
Social Security Fairness Act in the United States
The Social Security Fairness Act in the United States puts an end to the elimination of the unforeseen advantage (WEP) and the government pension offset (GPO). These provisions reduced or eliminated Social Security benefits for more than 3.2 million people who receive a pension based on work that was not covered by Social Security, that is, an ‘uncovered pension’. This law, therefore, increases Social Security benefits for certain types of workers, including the following:
- 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 social insurance system of another country.
However, only people who receive a pension based on work not covered by Social Security can see increases in benefits under this new law. The majority of state and municipal public employees, around 72%, work in jobs covered by Social Security and are not affected by the WEP or GPO. Those people are not affected by the Fairness Act and will not receive an increase in benefits. Therefore, the Social Security Administration is finalizing its plan to implement the law and, at the same time, limit the negative effects on our regular jobs and the services provided to the public. According to the administration, “we are not yet able to provide estimates on when we will adjust a person’s past or future benefits, but we will continue to provide updates on this website.”
People who qualify for SSA
The amount by which the monthly benefits of an affected beneficiary can change varies greatly. So, depending on factors such as the type of Social Security benefit received and the amount of the person’s pension, some people’s earnings will increase very little while others may be eligible for thousands of dollars more each month.
On the other hand, for those sectors of the population that already qualify for Social Security, the Administration claims that there is nothing they can do, at least for the moment. The only thing they have publicly stated is the obligation to keep the personal details and postal address of each worker up to date, with the aim of speeding up procedures if necessary.
