President Joe Biden signed the Social Security Fairness Act into law on Sunday, and it could increase Social Security benefits for more than 2 million public sector workers.

"The bill I'm signing today is about a simple proposition—Americans who have worked hard all their lives to earn an honest living should be able to retire with economic security and dignity," Biden said at the signing ceremony. "The law that existed denied millions of Americans access to the full Social Security benefits they earn by thousands of dollars a year. That denial of benefits also applied to surviving spouses of public service employees."

The new law repeals two old provisions—the Windfall Elimination Provision (WEP) and the Government Pension Offset (GPO)—that reduced 澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果体彩网:Social Security benefits for public sector workers who receive pensions.

First introduced before the House in 2023, the bill passed the Senate with bipartisan support in a 76-20 vote on December 21 before heading to the president's desk.

What Does This New Law Do?

The now rescinded provisions affected the amount of Social Security benefits that workers earned if they received retirement or disability pensions from jobs where they didn't pay 澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果体彩网:Social Security taxes.

Enacted in 1983 to bolster Social Security's finances, the WEP limited retirement and disability benefits for workers who are eligible for Social Security benefits but receive pensions from jobs that don't withhold Social Security taxes. By repealing WEP, the formula for calculating benefits will c🥂hange and those workers will recei⛎ve larger benefits.

"A lot of people who were affected by the WEP end up getting to retirement and get this kind of nasty surprise that their Social Security benefit is substantially lower than they thought," said Emerson Sprick, an economist at the Bipartisan Policy Center.

The GPO, enacted in 1977, reduced the spouse's and surviving spouse's Social Security benefits for those who receive their own government pensions through jobs that don't pay Social Security taxes. Under the GPO, someone would have their monthly spousal benefit reduced by two-thirds of the value of their pension. Without the GPO, retirees wouldn't have their spousal benefits offset by their pension. It's estimated that roughly 1% of beneficiaries have their benefits reduced by the GPO.

As of Jan. 2, the Social Security Administration (SSA) has stated current beneficiaries who are affected by the provisions do not need to take any action. Instead, they encourage people to "verify that we have your current mailing address and direct deposit information if it has recently changed."

The New Law May Widen The Deficit and Eat Into The Social S🍸ecurity Trust Fund💧

Critics of the law argue that it would accelerate the depletion of the Social Security trust fund and increase the deficit by more than $196 billion.

"Repealing the WEP and GPO, without offsetting the additional costs, is incredibly fiscally irresponsible," Sprick said. "It has major fiscal and fairness effects."

A Congressional Budget Office estimate found that the law would hasten the 澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果体彩网:exhaustion of the trust fund, which is already expected to 澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果体彩网:run dry in 2034, by six months.

"To right a wrong for a small percentage of people that should get fairly treated, they are going to take $200 billion over 10 years to pay for this," said U.S. Senator Thom Tillis (R-NC) on Dec. 18.