Key Points
- On Sunday, President Joe Biden signed the Social Security Fairness Act, paving the way for nearly 3 million public workers to boost their Social Security benefits.
- The bipartisan legislation repeals two provisions that reduced Social Security benefits for certain public workers who also receive pension income.
- Advocacy groups who lobbied for the changes for decades praised the change as a historic move.
President Joe Biden signed the Social Security Fairness Act on Sunday, bipartisan legislation that allows teachers, firefighters, police officers, and other public sector workers who receive pension income to increase their Social Security benefits.
The benefit increase comes as the new law repeals two provisions that have been in effect for more than four decades: the Windfall Elimination Provision, or WEP, and the Government Pension Offset, or GPO.
The WEP reduces Social Security benefits for people who receive pension or disability benefits from jobs where Social Security payroll taxes were not withheld. As of December 2023, that provision affected approximately 2 million Social Security beneficiaries.
The GPO reduces Social Security benefits for spouses, widows, and widowers who receive their own government pensions. In December 2023, the GPO had an impact on nearly 750,000 beneficiaries.
“By signing this bill, we’re extending Social Security benefits for millions of teachers, nurses and other public employees and their spouses and survivors,” said Vice President Biden on Sunday. “That means an estimated average of $360 per month increase.”
That additional income is a “big deal” for middle-class households, he stated.
More than 2.5 million Americans will receive a lump sum payment of thousands of dollars to compensate for a shortfall in benefits due in 2024, according to Biden.
The Social Security Fairness Act will affect Social Security benefits paid after December 2023. The Social Security Administration has not yet released more information about how the benefit increase will be implemented.
“With the repeal of WEP and GPO, federal retirees, along with many others, will finally receive the full Social Security benefits they’ve earned,” William Shackelford, president of the National Active and Retired Federal Employees Association, said in a statement.
On December 21, the Senate passed the bill with a 76-vote bipartisan majority, led by Sens. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, and Susan Collins, R-Maine. In November, the House passed the Social Security Fairness Act with a 327-vote bipartisan majority, led by Reps. Garret Graves, R-La., and Abigail Spanberger, D-Va.
Advocacy groups that advocated for the changes hailed Biden’s signing of the bill as a historic moment.
“Our organization has spent decades lobbying for the repeal of the WEP and GPO,” Max Richtman, president and CEO of the National Committee to Preserve Social Security and Medicare, stated.
“We endorsed the Social Security Fairness Act — and are gratified to finally see this legislation enacted and signed by the president.”
These provisions have reduced Social Security benefits for decades.
“This victory is more than 40 years in the making, and while we celebrate today, we also reflect on those who were impacted by these provisions but are no longer here to witness this change,” according to Shackelford.
“Their service and contributions are not lost on us, and we honor their legacy by continuing to advocate for fairness in retirement benefits for all public servants.”
