When I took a job at the Defense Personnel Support Center in South Philadelphia (commonly known as the Quartermaster) in 1980, I was enrolled into the Civil Service Retirement System (CSRS).

A few years later a new system, the Federal Employees Retirement System (FERS), began to be phased in and those of us under the older system were allowed to opt into the newer one. I didn’t pay much attention at the time because I was stupid and I was still somewhat under the illusion that my Defense Department job might just be temporary and I’d eventually find something in the private sector. Plus, most everybody seemed to be leery of the new system, thinking it couldn’t possibly be any better than the older one. In truth it was probably better in several ways both for the government and for the employees, and perhaps not quite as good in some other ways. There are always tradeoffs.

Anyway sometime in the late 1990s it occurred to me as I was still a government employee I ought to explore my retirement options, and to make a long story short, I opted to switch over to FERS. The big thing for me was that I had spent ten years before my government service paying into Social Security, and that would mostly go to waste unless I paid in some more. The advantage of FERS is that it piggy backed onto the Social Security system, so I’d pay more into it for several more years and thus get more benefits from it. Plus, I wouldn’t lose what I had paid into CSRS.

I ended up taking an early out a few years later, so my retirement benefits weren’t as generous as they would have been had I stayed a few more years, but I did the calculations and I felt I’d be fine.

And I have been.

Except— 

There was a clause that automatically reduced the Social Security benefits of anyone who received a pension in addition to their Social Security benefits. So my retirement payments haven’t been quite as high as I had hoped. As I said, I’m getting by ok.

Anyway, one of the last things that the previous congress did on a bipartisan basis was pass The Social Security Fairness Act. It was signed into law by Joe Biden. It eliminates the Government Pension Offset (GPO) and the Windfall Elimination Provision (WEP) retroactive to January 2024. 

I’ve been waiting to hear just how this will affect me. I still don’t know exactly as to the dollar amount, but I did recently receive email from the Social Security Administration:

We May Owe You Additional Benefits 

We have been reducing or withholding your Social Security benefits because you receive a pension from work not covered by Social Security. The Social Security Fairness Act eliminates Government Pension Offset (GPO) and the Windfall Elimination Provision (WEP) retroactive to January 2024. Your benefits may increase because of the new law. However, if you owe past due Medicare premiums or have an outstanding overpayment balance, we may withhold some or all the retroactive benefits you are due.  

How We Will Process the Payments 

This law affects over three million beneficiaries. Our electronic payment systems cannot make all the necessary changes at the same time. Therefore, we will need to process the actions in several stages, which are expected to begin in late-February.  

When Your Monthly Payments May Increase 

Social Security benefits are paid one month behind. For example, you receive February’s payment in March.  

If you are due retroactive benefits as a result of the Social Security Fairness Act, you will receive a single retroactive payment that covers the increase in your benefit amount back to January 2024.   

You will get your new benefit amount the following month.

As I said, I have no idea how much this might come to, but I don’t expect it to be an especially significant or eye-opening amount. I don’t anticipate the monthly increase to be more than in the low two figures. But for some folks who might need it more than I do, it might make a big difference.

Of course, this all presumes that president musk and his muskrats don’t somehow gum up the works.