In the News

U.S. Rep. Richard Neal said the bill President Joe Biden signed into law Sunday afternoon that increases Social Security payments for some public employees will affect more than 100,000 residents in Massachusetts.

Nationally, the bill aimed at current and former public employees would affect nearly 3 million people who receive pensions from their time as teachers, firefighters, police officers and in other public service jobs.

Advocates say the Social Security Fairness Act rights a decades-old disparity, though it will also put strain on Social Security Trust Funds, which face a looming insolvency crisis.

“There is going to be a sense of economic fairness that is going to come to those who contribute to the necessary quarters of Social Security but because of quirks in the law, they have been denied those benefits,” said Neal, D-Springfield, in a call with reporters ahead of the bill signing ceremony. “This is not anyone who getting something they have not contributed to.”

The bill rescinds two provisions — the Windfall Elimination Provision and the Government Pension Offset — that limit Social Security benefits for recipients if they get retirement payments from other sources, including public retirement programs from a state or local government.

U.S. Sen. Ed Markey, D-Massachusetts, said in a statement in December after the legislation’s passage that it repealed "Draconian laws that robbed an entire generation" of public employees of their earned benefits.

As for his part, Biden said before taking pen to paper that he was proud of his involvement in the Social Security Fairness Act.

“As the first president in 20 years to expand Social Security benefits, this victory is a culmination of a four-year fight,” Biden said.

The law eliminates two provisions in effect at least since 1983. The first is the Windfall Elimination Provision. The law reduces the amount of Social Security benefits on income not derived from public service, say from a part-time job or a second job before or after public service. The WEP cuts the Social Security payout to no more than half the benefit.

The second provision eliminated by the Fairness Act is the Government Pension Offset, which reduces payouts to spouses or survivors of a public employee, with two-thirds of the public pension amount deducted from the Social Security payout.

Both provisions were implemented to prevent what some called, “double dipping,” or receiving full benefits from two separate public pensions at the same time.

The law allows a one-year retroactive payout to retirees dating back to January of 2024. Any reduced benefits withheld since then will be repaid.

Lt. Brian Ward, president of Local 648 of the International Association of Fire Fighters, said the expanded Social Security payments are significant and were a long time coming.

Ward said many firefighters work a second job to provide for their families.

“When we go to look for more income (from municipal governments) we are literally told to get another job,” Ward said. “We are not paid the same as police. We are tens of thousands of dollars behind the average police officer in Springfield. So, when we are told to get a second job and the money we pay into Social Security is not coming back to us that’s just not fair.”

Martin Curley, president of Local 364 of the International Brotherhood of Police Officers, which represents police officers in Springfield, said the Social Security policies were especially harsh on police and firefighters.

“We have the type of job that you get out of early, say in your 50s. We have a chance to have a second career paying into Social Security,” he said. “With this bill, it gives us the opportunity to get our fair share from what we have actually earned.”

The Congressional Budget Office estimated in September that eliminating the Windfall Elimination Provision, for instance, would boost monthly payments to the affected beneficiaries by an average of $360 by December 2025.

The act passed both houses of Congress with bipartisan support although some, like U.S. Sen. Thom Tillis of North Carolina, a Republican, opposed the legislation saying, “We caved to the pressure of the moment instead of doing this on a sustainable basis.”

The trust fund that pays benefits to the approximately 72.5 million Americans currently reliant on Social Security will become insolvent in 2035, according to an annual report issued by Social Security and Medicare trustees last May.

The new law will hasten the program’s insolvency date by about half a year.