Social Security Announces Expedited Retroactive Payments and Higher Monthly Benefits for Millions – Actions Support the Social Security Fairness Act
Reading Time: 2 MinutesLast Updated: February 25, 2025
Today, the Social Security Administration announced it is immediately beginning to pay retroactive benefits and will increase monthly benefit payments to people whose benefits have been affected by the Windfall Elimination Provision (WEP) and Government Pension Offset (GPO).
These provisions reduced or eliminated the Social Security benefits for over 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 Social Security Fairness Act ends WEP and GPO.
“Social Security’s aggressive schedule to start issuing retroactive payments in February and increase monthly benefit payments beginning in April supports President Trump’s priority to implement the Social Security Fairness Act as quickly as possible,” said Lee Dudek, Acting Commissioner of Social Security. “The agency’s original estimate of taking a year or more now will only apply to complex cases that cannot be processed by automation. The American people deserve to get their due benefits as quickly as possible.”
People who will benefit from the new law include some teachers, firefighters, and police officers in many states; federal employees covered by the Civil Service Retirement System; and people whose work had been covered by a foreign social security system.
Many beneficiaries will be due a retroactive payment because the WEP and GPO offset no longer apply as of January 2024. Most people will receive their one-time retroactive payment by the end of March, which will be deposited into their bank account on record with Social Security.
Many of these people will also receive higher monthly benefits, which will first be reflected in the benefit payment they receive in April. Depending on factors such as the type of Social Security benefit received and the amount of the person’s pension, the change in payment amount will vary from person to person.
Anyone whose monthly benefit is adjusted, or who will get a retroactive payment, will receive a mailed notice from Social Security explaining the benefit change or retroactive payment. Most people will receive their retroactive payment two to three weeks before they receive their notice in the mail, because the President understands how important it is to pay people what they are due right away. Social Security is expediting payments using automation and will continue to handle many complex cases that must be done manually, on an individual case-by-case basis. Those complex cases will take additional time to update the beneficiary record and pay the correct benefits.
Social Security urges beneficiaries to wait until April to ask about the status of their retroactive payment, since these payments will process incrementally into March. Since the new monthly payment amount will begin with the April payment, beneficiaries should wait until after receiving their April payment, before contacting Social Security with questions about their monthly benefit amount.
Visit the agency’s Social Security Fairness Act webpage to learn more and stay up to date on its progress. Visitors can subscribe to be alerted when the webpage is updated.
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William J.
Retired Educator in South Carolina! Will I get an increase?
T.Y.
Hi, William. Thanks for reading our blog and for your question. Only people who receive a pension based on work not covered by Social Security may see benefit increases. Most state and local public employees – about 72% – work in Social Security-covered employment where they pay Social Security taxes. Therefore, their benefits have not been reduced by the Windfall Elimination Provision (WEP) and Government Pension Offset (GPO). These individuals will not receive a benefit increase due to the new law. If you have a non-covered pension from your work as a teacher, you may receive an increase. For more information, visit our Social Security Fairness Act webpage. We hope this helps.
David S.
I received the letter on what my social security amount went up and after Federal taxes and Medicare deduction I was to receive 1926.00 but what’s going into my account is 1837.00 not sure why . But I just started to get a pension from the Teamsters union so would that have something to do with the amount?
Melinda M.
How about back pay benefits that has been withheld for a just in case that has past its time & I’ve still not gotten my $
John J.
Thank you, thank you, thank you! I taught in Catholic schools for 10 years and they took Social Security and last salary was $25,000 a year.
Robert W.
I just hope that the inclination of the current administration to appoint sycophants without any ability to perform the duties of their appointed positions will not affect the outcome of fairness and accuracy of important issues like the one I’m seeking answers for.
Robert W.
I am a retired Federal Employee under the CSRS pension system. I retired in 2000 and began drawing CSRS benefits immediately. Within weeks I began to work for a well known consulting company and began paying regular amounts into my social security account . My consulting stint lasted until about 2014 – well beyond the 40 quarters needed to qualify for Social Security . The effect of the new Social Security Fairness Act is still a very confusing issue for me to know how the removal of the previous restrictions will now effect my monthly SSA payment
Linda C.
I pray that I will be among those retirees I receive the addd money to my social Security check, which is very much needed to make my life better. God bless the USA and God bless President Trump.
R d.
Thank you! It appears the delay was a ploy by the last commissioner to get more staffing and money. Suddenly, she’s gone and a year or more turns into days.
Justina
Acting Commissioner King left because she refused to hand over our personal information to DOGE. She is a hero! So is our information still be protected from musk?
And we need to thank workers at SSA who made the payments happen.
Sheila T.
Please keep me up to date on this matter.
Scott N.
Thank you for this good news. It’s nice to know that Government has our back!