Social Security beneficiaries who stood to see a boost in payouts as the result of a law approved earlier this month may have to wait a little longer than expected for higher payments.
Under the new law, dubbed the Social Security Fairness Act, lawmakers agreed to repeal two tax rules that reduced benefits for many Americans who also receive government pensions, including police officers, teachers and firefighters.
Former President Biden, who signed off on the legislation, said at the time that more than 2 million Americans were slated to “receive a lump sum payment of thousands of dollars to make up for the shortfall in the benefits they should have gotten in 2024.”
“They’re going to begin receiving these payments this year,” Biden also said.
But the Social Security Administration (SSA) has since sought to temper expectations on the timing of potential payouts in a recent update.
The agency cited its funding when laying out challenges it faces to implement the law in a “timely manner and without negatively affecting day-to-day customer service.”
The agency noted the recent law “did not provide money” for implementation and added the measure requires the agency “to adjust benefits for over 3 million people.”
“Since the law’s effective date is retroactive, SSA must adjust people’s past benefits as well as future benefits,” the agency said in the update. “Though SSA is helping some affected beneficiaries now, under SSA’s current budget, SSA expects that it could take more than one year to adjust benefits and pay all retroactive benefits.”
The office also noted its national phone number plays a message regarding the act that has “helped tens of thousands of people avoid holding for a representative,” but it added that “more than 7,000 people each day still choose to wait to speak to a representative about the act.”
“These calls, as well as visitors and appointments in local offices, will continue to increase over the coming weeks and months,” the SSA said. “Helping people with this new and unfunded workload is made more difficult by SSA’s ongoing staffing shortages, including operating under a hiring freeze since November 2024.”
The SSA said the “hiring freeze is likely to continue” and added that all customers “will face delays and increased wait times as SSA prioritizes this new workload.”
As part of the new law, the agency said December 2023 marked the last month that the tax rules recently overhauled — known as the Windfall Elimination Provision and Government Pension Offset — will apply for retroactive payments.
“This means that those rules no longer apply to benefits payable for January 2024 and later.”
They also acknowledged that beneficiaries impacted could see varying changes in monthly benefits.
“Depending on factors such as the type of Social Security benefit received and the amount of the person’s pension, some people’s benefits will increase very little while others may be eligible for over $1,000 more each month,” the SSA said.
