The Social Security Administration is making progress toward implementing the Social Security Fairness Act. Through March 4, the SSA has already paid 1,127,723 people more than $7.5 billion in retroactive payments. The retroactive payments are the result of the repeal of the Windfall Elimination Provision (WEP) and Government Pension Offset (GPO), which reduced the payouts to recipients who were eligible for both a public pension and Social Security benefits. The average retroactive payment so far is $6,710.
“President Trump made it very clear he wanted the Social Security Fairness Act to be implemented as quickly as possible,” said Lee Dudek, acting commissioner of Social Security. “We met that challenge head on and are proudly delivering for the American people.”
The WEP and GPO provisions reduced or eliminated the Social Security benefits for more than 3.2 million people who receive a pension based on work that was not covered by Social Security (a “non-covered pension”) because they did not pay Social Security taxes.
The agency continues to pay remaining retroactive payments and is ready to begin paying higher monthly benefit payments beginning in April for people’s March benefit