The Social Security Benefits Act became law on Jan. 5, 2025. It grants benefits to millions of public sector workers (teachers, law enforcement, and more). Keep reading to learn more about the Act, who benefits, and how to model restored benefits in the Boldin Planner.
What is the Social Security Fairness Act?
According to the Social Security Administration (SSA), the Social Security Fairness Act repeals two provisions of the Social Security Act that reduced the Social Security benefits paid to public service workers.
The new legislation eliminates the Windfall Elimination Provision (WEP) and the Government Pension Offset (GPO). WEP and GPO barred employees with a public pension from collecting full benefits under the federal retirement program and reduced benefits for those workers’ surviving spouses and family members.
Who Benefits from the Social Security Fairness Act? And by How Much?
WEP and GPO mainly impacted state and local government employees who also worked jobs that required them to pay into Social Security.
Estimates suggest that there are 3 million Americans who will see an increase in Social Security benefits and the increase could be sizable – hundreds of dollars a month.
The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) estimates that:
- Scrapping WEP will increase monthly payments to affected Social Security recipients by an average of $360.
- Eliminating the GPO would result in an average monthly benefit increase of $700 for 380,000 recipients receiving benefits based on living spouses. And, for the 390,000 surviving spouses receiving widow or widower benefits, the average increase would be $1,190.
When Will Benefits Be Restored?
The Social Security Administration is evaluating how and when they will restore benefits.
When enacted, the new law will be retroactive back to December of 2023 meaning thousands of dollars in back payments to those who are eligible.
Modeling the Restoration of Benefits in the Boldin Planner
The Boldin planner did not have a WEP or GPO feature. So, we did not automatically model the benefit reductions for you or your dependents.
- So, if you are a new user, you should see the applicable benefit amounts you should receive with the Social Security Fairness Act.
- If you are an existing user and you turned off the Social Security benefit, we recommend that you correct that now to see your restored benefits. Please see this video for a demonstration of how to enable the spousal Social Security benefit in your plan.