The Social Security Administration (SSA) announced that starting this week retroactive benefits payments will begin going out and beneficiaries who were impacted by the Windfall Elimination Provision (WEP) and/or the Government Pension Offset (GPO) will begin receiving their full benefits. According to the SSA, the retroactive benefits, which repay the benefits lost to GPO and WEP back to January 2024, will be received in a one-time payment by the end of March.  Most impacted beneficiaries will begin receiving their increased GPO and WEP-free benefits in April. Payments will be processed incrementally throughout March, so not everyone will receive their retroactive payments at the same time. 

There are some complex cases, particularly GPO cases, where the SSA will need to process the benefit changes manually, which could delay the retroactive payment and monthly benefit increase.

Please refer to the SSA’s detailed and updated FAQ on the implementation of the Social Security Fairness Act (H.R. 82), which can be found here: https://www.ssa.gov/benefits/retirement/social-security-fairness-act.html