Higher Social Security payments coming for millions of people from bill that Biden signed

A bill signed by President Joe Biden on Sunday will soon bring higher social security payments to millions. 

The Social Security Fairness Act will boost the social security checks of around three million current and former public employees. 

Before the bill, firefighters, police officers, nurses and other public sector workers had their benefits reduced if they also received a pension not covered by Social Security.  

'Americans who have worked hard all their life to earn an honest living should be able to retire with economic security and dignity, that's the entire purpose of the Social Security system,' Biden said at the bill signing ceremony at the White House. 

The bill revoked two earlier provisions - the Windfall Elimination Provision and the Government Pension Offset - that limited benefits for recipients if they received retirement payments from other sources. 

Eliminating the Windfall Elimination Provision is set to boost monthly payments to the affected beneficiaries by an average of $360 by December 2025, the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) estimates.

Ending the Government Pension Offset will increase monthly benefits by an average of $700 by December for the 380,000 recipients getting benefits based on living spouses, according to the CBO.

The increase would be an average of $1,190 for 390,000 or surviving spouses getting a widow or widower benefit.

The change is due to payments made from January 2024 onwards, meaning the government will backdate checks to affected recipients. 

Like other social security payments they will increase over time with the annual cost of living increase (COLA). 

Proponents of the law, including Edward Kelly, president of the International Association of Fire Fighters, said it rights a historic wrong. 

However, others say it will add further pressures to the Social Security system which is already under severe strain.

The annual Social Security bill, which includes retirement, Medicare and disability benefits for 72.5 million recipients, costs the government $1.5 trillion a year.   

It is also under pressure to reform as the number of recipients and annual cost is rising faster than the income sustaining it.  

In fact, a recent report states that without change, Social Security will run out of money by 2035. 

Kelly, on the other hand, said the policy was 'a 40-year wrong,' and his members were 'excited to see the change.'

'Now firefighters who get paid very little can now afford to actually retire,' Kelly said.  

He added that the previous policy was 'far more egregious for surviving spouses of firefighters who paid their own quotas into Social Security but were victimized by the government pension system.'  

'Over two million public service workers will finally be able to access the Social Security benefits they spent their careers paying into,' Lee Saunders, president of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees labor union said in a statement. 

'Many will finally be able to enjoy retirement after a lifetime of service.'