Social Security Fairness Act: Where the expanded benefits stand
FILE - A Social Security Administration (SSA) office in Washington, DC, March 26, 2025. (Photo by Saul Loeb/AFP via Getty Images)
The Social Security Administration has information for those who are expecting expanded benefits following the passage of the Social Security Fairness Act.
Social Security Fairness Act benefits delayed
The backstory:
President Biden signed a bill in the final days of his presidency that boosts Social Security payments for nearly 3 million people.
The Social Security Fairness Act repealed two stipulations that limited payouts for some current and former public employees, including teachers, firefighters and police officers.
READ MORE: Social Security Fairness Act signed: What to know
Presently:
The Social Security Administration has been processing the eligible cases, and sending retroactive benefits and new benefit amounts.
By the numbers:
As of May 30, SSA says it has processed 91% of the eligible claims.
What's next:
SSA said several remaining cases are complex and cannot be processed automatically, and will require additional time to manually update the records.
What they're saying:
Employees reportedly told USA TODAY that the manual processing of these claims is topping their priority list, which may cause delays for more routine claims and SS needs.
FOX TV Stations has reached out to SSA for clarification and comment.
RELATED: Social Security June payment schedule: Here’s when recipients will get their checks
Social Security Fairness Act
Dig deeper:
The act ended the Windfall Elimination Provision (WEP) and Government Pension Offset (GPO).
These provisions reduced or eliminated the Social Security benefits of over 2.8 million people who receive a pension based on work that was not covered by Social Security because they did not pay Social Security taxes.
Employees who pay Social Security taxes are not affected.
The Source: Information in this article was taken from the Social Security Administration’s official government website. Comments about SSA prioritizing the new claims were taken from a June 3 USA TODAY report. This story was reported from Detroit.