Millions Face Delays as Social Security Struggles to Implement Benefit Changes

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The Social Security Administration (SSA) announced last week that it could take more than a year to fully implement the Social Security Fairness Act, a bipartisan law passed in 2024 that repealed two controversial provisions reducing retirement benefits for millions of federal workers and their families. The agency cited staffing shortages and a lack of funding as key obstacles to processing the changes.

The law, signed by then-President Joe Biden, eliminated the Windfall Elimination Provision (WEP) and the Government Pension Offset (GPO), which had reduced Social Security benefits for retirees who also received pensions from jobs not covered by Social Security, such as certain federal, state, and local government roles. The WEP affected over 2 million retirees, while the GPO impacted approximately 750,000 spouses and survivors.

In a statement on its website, the SSA warned that adjusting benefits and issuing retroactive payments for 2024 would require significant manual work. “Processing these changes is very complex and SSA’s analysis shows that much of the work must be done manually, on an individual case-by-case basis,” the agency wrote. The SSA is currently operating at a 50-year staffing low and faces additional challenges due to a temporary hiring freeze imposed by the Trump administration in November 2024.

Bill Callahan, a 67-year-old retired schoolteacher from Middlebury, Connecticut, expressed frustration over the delays. “At the end of the day, it’s going to turn out to be a temporary fix for 3 million citizens,” he said. “Congress will devise another poorly conceived fix, and another group will become the new pariah.” Callahan, like many others, has waited decades for the repeal of the WEP, which reduced his Social Security benefits due to his pension from a non-covered government job.

The SSA urged affected individuals to file applications for survivors’ benefits if they hadn’t already and to update their mailing addresses and direct deposit information. “Filing sooner might help you get a higher benefit amount,” the agency advised. However, the SSA cautioned that all Social Security beneficiaries, including the roughly 68 million unaffected by the new law, could face delays and increased wait times as the agency prioritizes implementing the changes.

The WEP and GPO, established in 1983, were designed to prevent what policymakers called “double-dipping” by retirees who received pensions from jobs not covered by Social Security. Critics argued the provisions unfairly penalized public servants, while proponents claimed they ensured fairness in the system. The bipartisan Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget warned that repealing the provisions would cost $183 billion over the next decade and accelerate Social Security’s insolvency by about six months.

Despite the challenges, the SSA said it is working to develop automated solutions for calculating retroactive benefits. “SSA is currently processing pending or new claims involving future benefits and developing procedures and automated solutions for computing retroactive benefits,” the agency stated. However, without additional funding, the timeline for full implementation remains uncertain.