Government Confirms Social Security Fairness Act Payments Finished Early: Millions of Americans Already Getting Paid

The Social Security Administration (S.S.A) has confirmed that it has finished compensating those impacted by the Social Security Fairness Act, 5 months ahead of schedule. The government agency, which distributes benefits to millions of Americans each month, warned that the process of making new and retroactive payments might take a lot longer under the Biden administration. 

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A bipartisan bill was passed by lawmakers in January that eliminated two provisions that restricted retirement benefits for certain workers, such as teachers, firefighters, police officers, certain federal employees, and their spouses. These provisions were known as WEP and GPO and in February, the agency began making these payments. Backdated payments to January 2024 and an adjusted benefits amount were included in the new payments.

Government Confirms SSFA Payments Finished Early

The Social Security Fairness Act was signed into law at the start of the year, returning full payments to millions of retirees.  Workers in the public sector who had previously had their benefits reduced because their employers had offered them alternate pensions are primarily affected by the Social Security Fairness Act. 

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Also, the affected group of public sector workers will be eligible for a one-time retroactive payment to compensate them for the previous benefit cut. SSA had originally said that these cases would be processed by early November, but the previous Biden Administration predicted that processing may take up to a year. Despite these projections, it seems that the SSA has managed to expedite this process, and a news statement issued by the agency on July 7 states that all SSFA cases have now been completed successfully.

What is Social Security Fairness Act?

The SSFA was signed into law in January 2025, effectively repealed the GPO and WEP, millions of Americans have been impacted by these rules, and this amendment, which is retroactive to January 1, 2024, represents a major change in the face of Social Security benefits.

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WEP was designed to adjust Social Security payments for those who earn a pension from job that is not covered by the program, including some government jobs. Preventing these people from getting a “windfall” by obtaining both a full pension and full Social Security payments was the justification.

Critics countered that WEP often unjustly cut payments for a large number of public employees, such as teachers and police officers, who had previously contributed to Social Security through other jobs. Likewise, GPO had an impact on widows, widowers, and spouses who also received government pension’s Social Security income.

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• According to the Congressional Budget Office 2.1 million Social Security recipients would see an average boost in payments of $360 if the WEP were eliminated. By December 2033, this would rise to an average of $460 for 1.8 million individuals. The CBO estimates that in December 2025, the removal of the GPO will result in a monthly benefit payment increase of around $700 for spouses and $1,190 for surviving spouses. Payments would reach $860 and $1,520 by December 2033, respectively.
• Just 4% of all Social Security recipients are impacted by the WEP and GPO combined, but for the 2.8 million eligible people (down from the 3.2 million the SSA stated in April), the effects on those households might be significant. The measure covers benefits payable after December 2023, thus eligible persons will get back payments.  The CBO projects that those who receive both programs will see a decrease in Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program payments due to the rise in Social Security benefits.

Impact of the repeal

Individuals who have been impacted by WEP and GPO have received their full Social Security payments. The biggest beneficiaries were those in the public sector, including teachers, police officers, and other government personnel. Many of these people have got higher Social stability benefits each month, giving them more retirement income stability. 

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Many families may experience less financial burden due to the repeal, which will allow people who have been getting lower spousal or survivor benefits because of the GPO received the full payments to which they were eligible.

Social Security Fairness Act Payments- Millions of Americans already received

Although earlier longer deadlines were for implementation, the SSA has confirmed that it had paid out 3.1 million to individuals affected by the WEP and GPO repeal. More than $17 billion has been disbursed so far. Social Security payouts for people who obtained pensions from public-sector jobs (such state or federal jobs) that did not necessitate paying Social Security payroll taxes were cut under the WEP. They were still eligible for benefits even if they also held job that paid into Social Security. 

By using automation, the agency was able to quickly change the vast majority of cases, and by June, over 80% of the cases had been adjusted. The complexity of the remaining situations required manual adjustment.

A recent SSA press announcement dated July 7 states that all SSFA cases have been adjusted and that payments have been made to the approximately 3 million impacted individuals, with 99% of the cases already adjusted by the end of June.  For the organization and its new commissioner, this is a big accomplishment as the task was completed months ahead of time.