Posted on 03/26/2025 1:25:57 AM PDT by Libloather
Some 3 million Americans may benefit from higher Social Security payments beginning in April.
Why It Matters
In January, two provisions—the Windfall Elimination Provision (WEP) and the Government Pension Offset (GPO)—that reduced Social Security benefits for millions of workers were repealed after bipartisan efforts in Congress.
Signing the act into law, former President Joe Biden said it would boost Social Security benefits by an average of $360 a month for more than 2.8 million recipients.
What To Know
Beginning in April, these boosted payments will be made for all relevant recipients, the Social Security Administration confirmed in a news release in February.
The SSA has said that, "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."
The WEP reduced Social Security benefits for individuals receiving pensions from public-sector jobs—such as those held by state and federal employees—that did not require Social Security payroll tax contributions. This reduction applied even if they contributed to Social Security through other employment and qualified for benefits.
The GPO reduced spousal or survivor benefits for retired federal, state and local government workers who did not pay into Social Security funds through their payroll taxes.
Retroactive Payments
The Social Security Fairness Act also required backdated payments to January 2023 to be made to all recipients. The SSA confirmed that these have already been paid.
If you have not been paid by April, you can contact the SSA to inquire about the status of your payment.
(Excerpt) Read more at newsweek.com ...
If you didn’t pay the tax nobody should be getting the benefit...
This benefits only government workers.
We, the ordinary serfs, get nothing.
That Windfall elimination provision was exactly, what it said. Eliminated windfall pensions for people who worked in government, and in private.
Well, congrats you, government workers, now you get your windfall money!
But they did pay in. My husband worked a government job and got a pension. He also worked a civilian job before and after his government job. He was only entitled to 40% of his social security payment because he had a government pension. I guess you would fine with losing 60% of your social security if you have a civilian pension?
They lost 60% of any social security payment they were entitled to due to having worked non-government jobs. Guess you would be happy to lose 60% of your social security that you paid into if you have a civilian pension?
I want Elon to get access to the Social Security data he needs. I want to see just how much we’ve been screwed out of.
Yes,
Social Security is a welfare program.
Designed to pay more for the “poor”. As you make more money, you benefits grow proportionally less and less.
If you pay little bit into the system, you get paid up to 90% of you income, but if you worked all life in private industry, you end up getting only 15%!
People, who worked government, and get their gov. pensions, but also worked in private a little bit, would get the “poor” 90% SS a top of their gov pensions.
So they would get the SS Windfall. the huge benefit designed for the poor a top of their rich gov pensions.
So this provision was designed to make their benefits, as if they worked all the time at one institution.
Obviously, Biden gift to his faithful gov. workers.
Or, rather, the deep state getting themself a raise!
You husband got what we are getting, now, he is getting a lot more! Is it fair for us, the ordinary folks, who never worked in government?!
You obviously know very little about how the WEP impacted all the other professions outside of gubmint ‘service’. Just FYI any organization could set up a retirement plan for it’s members and many did so. The best example is teachers. Many teacher retirement systems (TRS) invested dues and returned a better return than the SSA so many teachers opted to use that retirement system instead of SS. For many years teachers could select which retirement system to use.
This was fine until some of the TRSs made TRS membership mandatory as a condition for employment. People who worked in the private sector for a primary career and then switched to teaching (a good idea No? having actual real-world experience passed to the next generation by those who had actual real-world knowledge rather than freshly graduated folks who only knew theory?) So when these folks retired from teaching they found a big chunk of their real-world retirement check discounted by SSA and only the lower of the two retirement checks was allowed as their monthly payment or as a lower amount of the combined payments.
The unfairness of WEP was that in my example both retirement checks were earned in separate retirement systems hence the retiree should be able to collect both in the full amounts.
PS: I know a bit about this as my wife recently retired from teaching and from marketing before that. She found that she had to chose which (not both) checks she wanted to retire with. In the end either selection was a reduced amount because of her mandatory participation in the Texas TRS. Not fair.
It eliminated the double and triple dippers.
Work for government pension .
Retire.
Work 10 quarters for ss pension. Most took out way move than they put in just by qualifying
Triple dippers had military pensions prior to the above.
🔝🔝🔝
It eliminated the double and triple dippers.
Work for government pension .
Retire.
Work 10 quarters for ss pension. Most took out way move than they put in just by qualifying
Triple dippers had military pensions prior to the above.
They did. That’s why they are getting it.
Maybe they should just stop worrying about alleged windfalls and just provide the SS that they would get from the jobs that collected FICA. No adjustments either up or down.
“If you didn’t pay the tax nobody should be getting the benefit...”
The bill was for the ones who paid the tax and did not get the benefit.
” As you make more money, you benefits grow proportionally less and less.”
Where on earth did you get that? As you pay more in, you get more out. And it is not welfare.
SS is a transfer of payments system.
You’re not getting the money you paid in.
That went to other people.
Current recipients are getting money currently taken from other people.
That’s how it works.
It’s welfare.
“The Social Security Fairness Act also required backdated payments to January 2023 to be made to all recipients. The SSA confirmed that these have already been paid.”
This is fake news. A few weeks ago I received a letter from SSA saying I would receive my lump sum back payments on 20 March. I just rechecked my bank balance and.... Still Nope.
It would be great if I do.
There is a no longer a tax to be paid by some-still-employeed, some retired, and some semi-retired(?) federal government bureaucracy [IOW: SWAMP] employees.
“some-still-employeed” —> some-still-employed
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