WASHINGTON — The President Joe Biden He plans to sign a measure into law on Sunday Increases Social Security payments for current and former public employees, with effect almost 3 million people those who receive pensions in the jobs of teachers, firefighters, policemen and other public services.
Advocates say the Social Security Fairness Act corrects a decades-old inequity, though it will also put a strain on the Social Security Trust Fund as it faces an insolvency crisis.
The bill repeals two provisions: Windfall removal provision and has Compensation of government pensions — that Limitation of Social Security benefits for recipients who receive retirement payments from other sources, including public retirement programs of a state or local government.
The Congressional Research Service estimated that in December 2023 there were 745,679 people, about 1% of all Social Security beneficiaries, who had reduced benefits with the Government Pension Offset. About 2.1 million people, or about 3% of all beneficiaries, were affected by the Windfall Elimination Provision.
The Congressional Budget Office It was estimated in September that eliminating the Windfall Elimination Provision would increase monthly payments to affected beneficiaries by an average of $360 by December 2025. Ending the Government Pension Offset in December 2025 would increase monthly benefits by an average of $700 for the 380,000 recipients receiving benefits. living spouses, according to CBO. The increase would be an average of $1,190 for 390,000 or surviving spouses who get a widow or widower’s benefit.
These amounts would increase over time with regular Social Security cost-of-living adjustments.
The change applies to payments after January 2024, which means the Social Security Administration would owe back payments. A measure passed by Congress The Social Security commissioner said the change in the law “will adjust the primary insurance amounts as necessary.”
Edward Kelly, president of the International Association of Fire Fighters, said firefighters across the country were “delighted to see change: we’ve righted a 40-year wrong.” Kelly said the policy was “much more severe for spouses of firefighters who paid their own Social Security contributions but fell victim to the government’s pension system.”
The IAFF has approximately 320,000 members, not including the hundreds of thousands of retirees who will benefit from the change.
“Firefighters who are underpaid now can retire now,” Kelly said.
Sherrod Brown, who pushed the proposal for years as an Ohio senator, lost his re-election bid in November. Lee Saunders, president of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, thanked Brown for his advocacy.
“More than two million workers will finally be able to access the Social Security benefits they’ve spent their careers paying for,” Saunders said in a statement. “Many will finally be able to enjoy retirement after a lifetime of service.”
National Education Association President Becky Pringle said the law is “a historic victory that will improve the lives of educators, first responders, postal workers and others who dedicate their lives to public service in their communities.”
And while some Republicans, such as Sen. Susan Collins of Maine, supported the legislation, others, including John Thune of South Dakota, Rand Paul of Kentucky, and Thom Tillis of North Carolina, voted against it. “We held on to the pressure of the moment rather than making it permanent,” Tillis told The Associated Press last month.
Still, Republican supporters of the bill said it was a rare opportunity to address what they described as an unfair section of federal law that hurts public service retirees.
The future of Social Security has become a major political issue and was a major point of contention in the 2024 election. About 72.5 million people, including retirees, the disabled and children, receive Social Security benefits.
The new law’s policy changes will pile more administrative work on the Social Security Administration, which is already at its lowest staffing level in decades. The agency, currently in a hiring freeze, has about 56,645 employees — the lowest level in more than 50 years. it serves more people than ever before.
Social Security and Medicare annual administrators report released last May he said the program’s trust fund won’t be able to pay full benefits after 2035. The new law will speed up the program’s insolvency date by about half a year. ___
Associated Press writer Stephen Groves contributed to this report.
