Social Security Fairness Act

On January 5, 2025, former President Biden signed the Social Security Fairness Act into law, after it was passed by the Senate in December and House in November.

The legislation eliminates the Windfall Elimination Provision (WEP) and Government Pension Offset (GPO.) It will stop the reduction of Social Security benefits for certain retirees who receive public pensions. Additionally, a provision that reduced social security benefits for surviving spouses and family of pensioners was also eliminated.

The Social Security Administration (SSA) will recalculate benefits for those affected by the WEP and GPO. Payments will be retroactive to December 2023.

This law does not impact or change any members’ VCERA retirement benefits. Only Social Security (SS) benefits are impacted, and only people who receive a pension based on work not covered by Social Security may see changes to their SS benefits. While most VCERA members participate in Social Security and are therefore not affected by the new law, there are several bargaining groups, such as Law Enforcement and Fire Suppression (Safety members), that are not subject to Social Security.

If you are an affected retiree, the SSA will contact you, or you can visit www.ssa.gov for more information.