WASHINGTON, DC – U.S. Senator Jack Reed (D-RI) is once again urging the Trump Administration to quickly implement of the Social Security Fairness Act, which will ensure retired teachers, police, firefighters, and other public service workers and their spouses get the full Social Security benefits they earned.

More than 8,600 Rhode Islanders and a total of 3.2 million Americans stand to benefit from the change, thanks to the Social Security Fairness Act, which Senator Reed cosponsored and former President Biden signed into law on January 5.

The new law repealed the Windfall Elimination Penalty (WEP) and Government Pension Offset (GPO), which prevented 3 million government retirees who earned pensions from those careers from collecting their full benefits earned while working outside of government.

“The Trump Administration needs to get into gear and implement the law.  Thousands of Rhode Island retirees who served as teachers, police officers, and more have waited long enough to get the benefits they rightfully earned. Instead of focusing on firing people from the Social Security Administration (SSA), the Trump Administration should spend more time and energy getting these checks out the door,” said Senator Reed, a member of the Appropriations Committee who is working to ensure the SSA has enough employees to provide first-rate, personalized customer service to retirees who need assistance.

Senator Reed estimates the average monthly benefit increase is about $360, but many recipients could see monthly raises of $1,000 or more this year.  The law is retroactive to January 1, 2024.  As a result, many people will eventually receive a significant lump sum for back payments as well as a monthly raise.

Retired public employees who may be eligible can visit SSA’s Social Security Fairness Act website to learn more.

Since the law was signed, there have been multiple and bipartisan efforts to encourage the Trump Administration to start paying Social Security recipients what they are owed.

All Social Security recipients will see a 2.5 percent increase in their benefits this year.  The cost-of-living adjustment (COLA) took effect in January, raising the average monthly retirement benefit from $1,927 to $1,976.

Earlier this month, the acting commissioner of the Social Security Administration resigned after clashing with billionaire Elon Musk’s so-called Department of Government Efficiency, after Musk’s personnel attempted to access sensitive government records that included people’s personal information.

Musk and Trump continue to actively mislead about Social Security. Musk amplified a chart showing 9 million people age 130 and over in the system and suggested “there are a lot of vampires collecting Social Security” adding, “This might be the biggest fraud in the history of humanity.”

While there are millions of people in Social Security with no death records because they lived and died before the system was fully automated, there are only 44,000 people with birth dates in 1920 or earlier who are actually getting payments from Social Security.

A July 2024 report from Social Security’s inspector general states that from fiscal years 2015 through 2022, the agency made less than 1 percent in improper payments. Most of the erroneous payments were overpayments to living people and some of it was clawed back.