Social Security Fairness Act
Federal Civil Service Retirement System (CSRS) annuitants may be eligible for new Social Security benefit AND we need your help to spread the word!
In January 2025, the Social Security Fairness Act (SSFA) was signed into law. The new law repealed the Social Security Windfall Elimination Provision (WEP), in addition to the Government Pension Offset (GPO). This may not affect you directly, but it will affect your past federal government employees. The new law restores full pensions for public service retirees who had been affected by those past provisions, and we are asking you to help spread the word.
Many CSRS annuitants believe they were not eligible for Social Security benefits when, in fact, they were eligible but, because the potential Social Security annuity was less than the CSRS annuity the CSRS pension “offset” any Social Security benefit that we might have earned.
The Social Security Fairness Act has changed all that!
If you are currently a CSRS annuitant, we are trying to locate you to advise you to contact the Social Security Administration as soon as possible. You may be entitled to additional Social Security benefits. The FCCA does not want you to miss out on receiving anything that you are now entitled to. If you know of past staff members who have retired under CSRS, please reach out to let them know of this major change to the SS Act. It doesn’t matter if you are or were a member of this association, we are and were all federal government employees. It is our goal to reach as many CSRS annuitants as we collectively can. We hope that Human Resource managers in EVERY federal agency can locate past employees to let them know of this new update that may affect them.
In a nutshell, the SSFA appears to provide Social Security benefits for CSRS annuitants who:
- Have earned 40 credits under Social Security, or
- Have a spouse who receives a Social Security pension, or
- Are in a situation where their spouse has passed away but the spouse either collected a Social Security pension or could have if they had lived until they were eligible to receive such a pension, or
- Are divorced from a spouse who is collecting a Social Security pension.
You may be in a different situation, but that may not matter as to your eligibility to collect Social Security. This is why we are urging those CSRS retirees to ask, to check, and to follow up with the Social Security Administration. You have nothing to lose to ask and more to lose if you do not check.
Just to give you an idea of the impacts of the SSFA:
- If your spouse is receiving a Social Security Pension, you could be eligible to receive 50% of that benefit.
- If your spouse predeceases you, you may be eligible to receive your spouse’s full Social Security pension for the rest of your life.
- It appears that if you qualify, you will start receiving a monthly benefit and even up to six months of back benefit.
As you see, these impacts are quite substantial. As a reminder, when contacting the Social Security Administration they will need to know your Social Security Number (SSN) and, if you are inquiring about benefits related to your spouse, they need to know your spouse’s SSN. They will most likely require additional information so be prepared. If your spouse is deceased or you are divorced, Social Security representatives will want to know the date of death or divorce. Although one can apply for benefits online, it is often helpful to talk to a Social Security representative on the phone to work through each fact situation.
If you have questions about the Social Security Fairness Act and/or your personal situations, please contact the Social Security Administration directly at 1-800-772-1213.
Since this new Social Security Fairness Act is not well known among CSRS annuitants and has not been widely publicized at all, spreading the word on these new benefits would be greatly appreciated by all of us.
Another great source of information is the National Active and Retired Federal Employees Association (NARFE).
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