Higher Social Security payments for millions thanks to bill signed by Biden – The Denver Post

WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden plans Sunday to sign into law a measure that increases Social Security payments for current and former public employees, affecting nearly 3 million people who receive pensions from their careers as teachers, firefighters, police officers and other public service jobs. .

Supporters say the Social Security Fairness Act addresses a decades-old disparity, although it will also strain Social Security trust funds, facing a looming insolvency crisis.

The bill strikes two provisions – the windfall elimination clause and the government pension offset – that limit recipients’ Social Security benefits if they receive retirement benefits from other sources, including programs public pensions of a state or local government.

The Congressional Research Service estimated that as of December 2023, 745,679 people, or about 1% of all Social Security beneficiaries, had their benefits reduced by government pension offsets. About 2.1 million people, or about 3% of all beneficiaries, were affected by the windfall elimination provision.

The Congressional Budget Office estimated in September that eliminating the windfall elimination provision would increase monthly payments to affected beneficiaries by $360 on average by December 2025. Ending pension offset government would increase monthly benefits in December 2025 by an average of $700 for 380,000 beneficiaries. get benefits based on living spouses, according to the CBO. The increase would be an average of $1,190 for 390,000 surviving spouses receiving a widow or widower’s benefit.

These amounts would increase over time with regular Social Security cost-of-living adjustments.

The change affects payments from January 2024 and beyond, meaning the Social Security Administration would be on the hook for backdated payments. The measure passed by Congress states that the Social Security commissioner “shall adjust primary insurance amounts to the extent necessary to take into account” the changes in the law. It is unclear how this will happen or whether those affected will need to take any action.

Edward Kelly, president of the International Association of Firefighters, said firefighters across the country are “excited to see change – we have righted a 40-year wrong.” Kelly said the policy was “much more egregious for surviving spouses of firefighters who paid their own Social Security taxes but were victims of the government’s retirement system.”

The AIP has approximately 320,000 members, not counting the hundreds of thousands of retirees who will benefit from this change.

“Now firefighters who are paid very little can now afford to retire,” Kelly said.

Sherrod Brown, who as an Ohio senator had lobbied for the proposal for years, lost his re-election bid in November. Lee Saunders, president of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, thanked Brown for his advocacy.

“More than two million public employees will finally be able to access the social security benefits they have paid into during their careers,” Saunders said in a statement. “Many will finally be able to enjoy their retirement after a life of service. »

National Education Association President Becky Pringle said the law is “a historic victory that will improve the lives of educators, first responders, postal workers and all those who dedicate their lives to public service in their communities.”

And while some Republicans like Maine Sen. Susan Collins supported the legislation, others, including Sens. John Thune of South Dakota, Rand Paul of Kentucky and Thom Tillis of North Carolina, voted against it. “We gave in to the pressure of the moment instead of doing this on a sustainable basis,” Tillis told The Associated Press last month.

Still, Republican supporters of the bill said it was a rare opportunity to tackle what they described as an unfair section of federal law that harms public service retirees.

The future of Social Security has become a major political issue and was a major point of contention in the 2024 elections. About 72.5 million people, including retirees, people with disabilities and children, receive social security benefits. social security.

The policy changes brought about by the new law will add to the administrative workload of the Social Security Administration, which is already at its lowest staffing level in decades. The agency, currently under a hiring freeze, has about 56,645 employees — the lowest level in more than 50 years, even though it serves more people than ever.

The annual report of the Social Security and Medicare administrators, released last May, indicated that the program’s trust fund would not be able to pay full benefits starting in 2035. The new law will accelerate the date of insolvency of the program of approximately six months. ___

Associated Press writer Stephen Groves contributed to this report.

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Originally published: January 5, 2025 at 7:07 a.m. MST