Congressman Jason Smith, 8th District-R, is informing his constituents that due to the passage of H.R. 82, a select group of senior adults will be receiving the Social Security benefits they are owed.
Smith credited the efforts of the Trump Administration and the Ways and Means Committee, of which he is chairman, to implement the Social Security Fairness Act.
The Social Security Fairness Act (H.R. 82), repealing the WEP and GPO, was signed into law on Jan. 5 and is retroactive to December 2023.
The WEP and GPO, enacted in 1983, primarily impacted state and local government employees, such as teachers, police officers, and firefighters, as well as federal government employees who received a pension based on earnings exempt from Social Security payroll taxes.
The WEP reduced the benefits of particular beneficiaries entitled to both Social Security and pension benefits from employment not covered by Social Security.
The GPO reduced the benefits of certain spouses and survivors who also receive pension benefits from employment not covered by Social Security.
“Less than four months after Congress repealed the Windfall Elimination Provision (WEP) and Government Pension Offset (GPO), the Trump administration will begin paying Social Security beneficiaries who are owed retroactive payments as soon as March, and changes to monthly benefits will begin as soon as April, despite previous claims by the Social Security Administration (SSA) that implementation could take up to one year,” he wrote.
In a separate statement issued by Smith, he said, “The Trump administration is wasting no time in ensuring America’s seniors receive the Social Security benefits they are owed. The Social Security Administration’s announcement that it will be expediting the delivery of retroactive payments and monthly benefit increases shows the agency is being responsive to the request of our committee to act on the repeal of the WEP and GPO without delay. Not letting the bureaucracy get in the way of benefits owed to America’s seniors is the right course of action. It will bring much needed relief to those individuals who were harmed by a flawed system.”
This action follows a letter sent by Smith and Social Security Subcommittee Chairman Ron Estes (R-Kansas) to then-Acting SSA Commissioner Carolyn Colvin requesting that the agency provide Congress and the American people with information and clear guidance on how it planned to implement the repeal of the WEP and GPO quickly and efficiently.
The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) was requested to provide information on how the enactment of H.R. 82, the Social Security Fairness Act of 2023, would impact the finances of the Old-Age and Survivors Insurance (OASI) Trust Fund, as well as its combined finances with the Disability Insurance (DI) Trust Fund over the next 75 years, from 2024 to 2098.
H.R. 82 seeks to eliminate the Windfall Elimination Provision (WEP) and the Government Pension Offset (GPO). The WEP reduces benefits for retired or disabled workers who have fewer than 30 years of substantial earnings from employment covered by Social Security and also receive pensions from non-covered jobs. The GPO lowers benefits for spouses or surviving spouses who receive pensions from non-covered occupations.
CBO’s analysis indicates that eliminating the WEP and GPO, as outlined in H.R. 82, would permanently raise outlays for scheduled Social Security benefits — that is, the amounts the program would pay if it continued to disburse benefits as outlined under current law, regardless of whether the program’s two trust funds had adequate balances to cover those payments. This increase in Social Security benefits would push the program’s spending even further above its revenues than is currently projected under existing law.
CBO also estimated the effects of H.R. 82 on payable Social Security benefits. Payable benefits are the benefits that the program could provide if its outlays were limited to the amounts that its annual revenues could fund after the exhaustion of the trust fund balances.
