The Social Security Administration released a frequently asked questions document last week, providing more details on the recently passed Social Security Fairness Act, signed into law by former President Joe Biden.

Implementation of the law poses some challenges for the SSA, as the law did not provide money to implement the law, and it requires the SSA to adjust benefits for more than 3 million people.

The legislation repealed two changes from the Social Security Amendments of 1983, which had authorized the Windfall Elimination Provision and amended the Government Pension Offset to reduce Social Security benefits for workers and spouses if they were covered by an employer that does not withhold Social Security taxes.

As a result of the new law, Social Security benefits are projected to increase for more than 3 million public employees and beneficiaries, and many unions representing public employees saw this as a huge win for public service workers. Meanwhile, others have argued that the repeal of the two provisions will cost the Social Security trust funds almost $200 billion over 10 years and accelerate by six months the insolvency of the trust funds, already projected to be depleted by 2035.

According to the SSA’s new FAQ, since the law’s effective date is retroactive, the SSA must adjust people’s past benefits, as well as their future benefits. Under the SSA’s current budget, the agency expects it could take more than one year to adjust benefits and pay all retroactive benefits.

The WEP and GPO apply to benefits paid through December 2023.  Benefits payable for January 2024 and later should be calculated without those provisions.

More than 7,000 people each day have been calling the SSA’s national toll-free number and are choosing to hold so they can speak to a representative about the act, the FAQ stated. The SSA anticipates that these calls, as well as visitors and appointments in local offices, will continue to increase over the coming weeks and months.

“Helping people with this new and unfunded workload is made more difficult by SSA’s ongoing staffing shortages, including operating under a hiring freeze since November 2024,” the FAQ stated. “This hiring freeze is likely to continue. All SSA customers, including those not affected by the act, will face delays and increased wait times as SSA prioritizes this new workload.”

Because processing the benefits changes is complex, the SSA’s analysis showed that much of the work must be done manually and on an individual, case-by-case basis. The SSA is currently processing pending or new claims involving future benefits and developing procedures and automated solutions for computing the retroactive benefits.

The SSA also reminded workers in the FAQ that not every teacher, firefighter, police officer or public worker will receive a benefit increase because of the new law. Only people who receive a pension based on work not covered by Social Security may see benefit increases. Most state and local public employees—about 72%—work in Social Security-covered employment, meaning they pay Social Security taxes and were not affected by the WEP or GPO. These individuals will not receive a benefit increase due to the law, according to the FAQ.

The SSA stated it cannot provide an estimated timeframe as to when it will adjust workers’ past or future benefits, but it will continue to provide updates on this webpage.