As one of his final acts in office, President Biden signed the Social Security Fairness Act into law on January 5th 2025. This law repeals two provisions that have reduced social security benefits for certain non-Social Security covered employees by up to 50%.

Your family or someone you know could be affected if they are receiving pensions from employment that is not covered by Social Security, which includes teachers, police officers, firefighters and other public servants. The change is expected to increase social security benefits for approximately 2.5 million retirees.

The two provisions that have been repealed are the Windfall Elimination Provision (WEP) and the Government Pension Offset (GPO). People who earned a pension from non-Social Security employment had their Social Security reduced by up to half, while in the case of the GPO, it reduced benefits by two thirds of their pension for those who qualified for spousal or survivor Social Security benefits.

The implementation of the law will be good news for people who may have lost family members or gone through a divorce, amongst many others heading into retirement after many years of public service. At the moment it’s estimated that Social Security payments could increase by an average of $360 to $1,190 per month.

More information is pending as the Social Security Administration prepares to implement the law. In the meantime we will be checking back regularly for updates and preparing for how we can support our clients with this new information as part of their plans for their family. If you think you or someone you know could be affected by these changes, our team is always ready to sit down for a consultation about how this could affect your plans. Please contact us to discuss today at 781-239-8900.