Some qualified beneficiaries have been limited to six-month retroactivity when filing for benefits adjustment even though the law applies to all payments after and including January 2024.
Washington, D.C. – U.S. Senators Susan Collins, Bill Cassidy, M.D. (R-LA), John Cornyn (R-TX), and John Fetterman (D-PA) sent a letter to Social Security Administrator Leland Dudek requesting that the Social Security Administration (SSA) review agency policy and grant maximum retroactive payments to all protected spouses under the Social Security Fairness Act (SSFA). The SSFA, coauthored by Senator Collins and cosponsored by Senators Cassidy, Fetterman, and Cornyn, restores earned Social Security benefits for millions of public employees and their spouses by repealing the Windfall Elimination Provision and the Government Pension Offset. The SSFA also provided for retroactive payments to January 2024.
“Over the past few weeks, several constituents have contacted our offices regarding the retroactivity of their spousal benefits under the Social Security Fairness Act,” the Senators wrote. “The law provides for retroactivity to the year the bill was introduced, first being applied to the January 2024 payment. These spouses, including widows and widowers, have shared with me that when they contacted the Social Security Administration years ago inquiring into spousal benefits, they were told by SSA employees that their spousal benefits would be reduced to $0 due to the Government Pension Offset; and therefore, there was no need to file an application for spousal benefits. Now, these same spouses are being told to file a claim for spousal benefits yet are only being granted a maximum of six months retroactivity from their most recent date of contact with the SSA.”
“As noted, we have assisted spouses who have contacted our offices questioning the retroactivity,” they continued. “They have shared that even if they question the retroactivity with the SSA employees during their recent appointment to apply for benefits, the applicants are only granted six-months retroactivity from the most recent contact date. We ask SSA to review the agency’s policy and grant maximum retroactivity payments to all spouses who were protected on prior applications and wrongly advised by employees of SSA not to apply for spousal benefits when they first inquired.”
The full text of the letter can be read here.
As of March 10, 23,697 Mainers have received retroactive payments amounting to $158,412,740. Nationally, since implementing automated benefit adjustments under the SSFA, SSA has paid more than 2.2 million beneficiaries a total of $14.6 billion in retroactive benefits. Updates on the SSA’s implementation of this law, including a subscription link to receive all future updates, are available here.
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