It is potential that tens of thousands of the American citizens are not getting the money they deserve. On Tuesday, April 15, 2025, a negative opinion about the Social Security Administration (SSA) and its new retroactive payments became the reason for the nationwide scandal around the social security refund of the retroactive payments.
This is all the outcome of the Social Security Fairness Act of January 2025 which has its prototype in the fact that it was meant to correct two controversial provisions and those two were the Windfall Elimination Provision (WEP) and the Government Pension Offset (GPO).
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The law was created to accomplish two main tasks (restore full benefits and provide back payments to January 2024). Nevertheless, now it seems that some people will only get a small portion of the money they are entitled to — particularly those who were wronged in the past, such as the widows, the widowers, and former public worker misled ones.
Now, the U.S. government is intervening.
Why are still some people missed out?
Their message is the latest of a number of statements to and from the Social Security Administration, which was made by the US senators to inform them that they are deeply puzzled over the matter and need the situation to be cleared up. What was the matter? SSA has evidently set a condition where just six months from the last time the person was in contact with the agency is when the retroactive payment period is defined.
This is extremely difficult for the contingent and survivor benefits that the GPO rule has stopped getting. The public retirees were told by the SSA people that they wouldn’t be the receiver of the benefits and, as a result, they never claimed.
However, now the same people are eligible because of the change in the law. The only thing is that the SSA field office employees are only giving back payment from the point of the latest contact and not since the time when the misinformation took place.
What Lawmakers Are Saying
According to a letter from Senators Bill Cassidy, Susan Collins, John Cornyn, and John Fetterman to SSA Acting Commissioner Leland Duden, the senators have clearly and with the strongest words recommended immediate action. In their view, the agency should comply with the full provisions of the law and pay out backdated sums from January 2024, as was meant.
In the letter, the senators presented stories of their constituents who were initially told that they were not entitled to spousal benefits due to the GPO section of the law, ergo, in essence, their spouses had no income to share. Later it transpired that not only were they eligible at that time they were also entitled to retroactive payments. However, since there was no application submitted at the time, they do not receive it.
They said that it was unfair and that it subverted the whole idea of the law.
What Is the Social Security Fairness Act?
Upon the enactment of the Social Security Fairness Act in January 2025, the Act became the legal tool used to get rid of the two rules that were responsible for the decrease in the amount of the benefits paid to about 3.2 million Americans:
- The WEP has reduced the amount of benefits for the people who were receiving pensions from a job not covered by the Social Security system.
- The GPO policy has been the reason to cut down or to nullify the widows’ and widowers’ benefits of those public employees who also had their own pension.
These regulations took away teacher’s, police officer’s, and firefighter’s benefits as well as other public servants’ and thus affected every single one of them, even those who paid social security from their second job or during their early career.
Moreover, the Bill also contained a rather unique provision which allowed law-qualified individuals to get benefits for a period of not only the present, but also the past dating all the way back to January 2024.
What’s the Problem?
Quite a large number of people who experienced the consequences of these rules were not in the position to fill out an application form because the staff of the SSA said that they were not eligible. These same people are currently only getting six months of the amount owed to them because of those who have received a direct payment and have only now started to apply for what they have owed to them.
This action might be the cause of a loss of benefits totaling over $5,000.
As per SSA policy, protective filing rules refer to the practice of awarding someone with back payments when that person proved that they were not given the right information. Yet, as it turned out, mistakes like these concerned senators have been reporting that some SSA offices are not enforcing the said regulation properly.
Will There Be Any Further Development?
There have been no official responses from the SSA so far. The congresspeople are requesting that the agency go through the records of all those who were wrongly denied and provide them with full retroactivity, if due.
Should you believe that you were one of the affected persons, you should:
- Get in touch with your local SSA office and ask for an eligibility review.
- Ask your case to be included in the protective filing provision if it has not yet been reviewed.
- If rejected, your last option would be your congressional representative, whom you can approach to be on your side.
Reflections
Most of the money the SSA owes to the American people remains unclaimed, and that is mainly because of the ignorance caused by the old and outdated policies that have affected a significant number of Americans. The fact is that, until the policy is changed, many of them will only get a portion of what should legally be given to them.
If you worked in public service and were one of those who were informed that you are not qualified for spousal benefits or if this happened to someone you are acquainted with you may want to reconsider the issue.
There is more money within the system, which will be available only after you apply for it.
