Retired public employees to see social security bump starting in April

[ResidentialBusiness]

Millions of social security recipients are about to receive retroactive payments, as well as get a permanent hike in their monthly check.

The increase in social security payments is due to the Social Security Fairness Act, signed into law by President Biden. According to the Social Security Administration (SSA), about 3.2 million recipients who previously only received partial payments will be impacted. The SSA made the announcement in a press release on Tuesday.

The Social Security Fairness Act, which Biden signed in December shortly before leaving office, eliminated two major policies which reduced social security payments for millions: the Windfall Elimination Provision (WEP) and the Government Pension Offset (GPO). Both policies barred employees with a public pension from collecting their full benefits under the federal retirement program and reduced survivor benefits for family members.

The former administration previously said that it could take up to a year for the payments to go out. However, Tuesday’s announcement explained that the retroactive payments, which should include any funds due after January 2024, will now be expedited.

“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, in the press release. “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.”

The press release explained that recipients impacted will 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.”

“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,” the release explained, noting that monthly increases, which will vary from person to person, should begin in April.

A recent study on how COVID impacted social security pointed to a $205 billion increase in the nation’s social security fund. An extra 1.7 million deaths related to the pandemic meant that costs to the program were greatly reduced when people who had paid into the program prematurely passed, and therefore stopped collecting benefits. The Trump Administration did not point to the surplus as an explanation for expediting payments. 

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