Social Security Fairness Act
On January 5, 2025, President Biden signed into law the Social Security Fairness Act. This Act ends the Windfall Elimination Provision (WEP) and Government Pension Offset (GPO). These provisions reduced or, in some cases eliminated, a person’s Social Security Benefits if they received a pension based on work that was not covered by Social Security because they did not pay Social Security taxes. This impacted various state government workers and federal employees. Some examples include teachers, firefighters, and police officers in many states as well as federal employees covered by the Civil Service Retirement System.
Under the new law, only people who receive a pension based on work not covered by Social Security may see benefit increases. About 72% of state and local public employees work in Social Security-covered employment where they pay Social Security taxes and are not affected by WEP or GPO. Those individuals will not receive a benefit increase due to the Act. However, those state and local employees who were affected by WEP or GPO will receive increases.
The amount that monthly benefits may change can vary greatly. Depending on factors such as the type of Social Security benefit received and the amount of the person’s pension, some people’s benefits will increase very little while others may be eligible for over $1,000 more each month.