One of the final things the Joe Biden administration did before turning over power to Donald Trump was to change the Social Security Administration‘s (SSA) payment procedures for April 2025 based on the Social Security Fairness Act, which was passed in January 2025.
Two clauses known as “WEP” and “GPO,” which decreased benefits to over 3.2 million Social Security recipients—primarily public personnel including teachers, firefighters, and federal agents under the Civil Service Retirement System (CSRS)—are eliminated by this regulation.
A bill that addressed injustices against Social Security recipients
The purpose of the bill was to address disparities in payments for people who earn pensions from occupations that are not covered by Social Security.
In the past, the GPO impacted spouses or survivors, whereas the WEP modified the amounts for people with external pensions.
72% of state and municipal employees whose roles are currently covered by the system will not be able to participate in the deletion of both provisions, which will take effect in January 2024.
Beneficiaries whose amounts were lowered as a result of the Windfall Elimination Provision (WEP) and Government Pension Offset (GPO) provisions started receiving retroactive payments from the SSA on February 25, 2025.
The period of these cuts was January 2024–March 2025.
$6,700 in average payments: How long will it take to send them?
With an average of $6,710 per beneficiary, about $7.5 billion has been disbursed to about 1,127,723 people as of March 4. In March, the majority got these money through direct transfer.
The SSA predicts that payments for more complicated instances that need human processing will be finished in April, but some may not be finished until November 2025, when all the injustices caused by the previous law should be fixed.
SSA expedited 85% of modifications by prioritizing easy situations with automation. Timelines are prolonged when manual review is necessary for complex scenarios.
Notifications of the changes will be sent by mail to all parties involved. Once the progressive processing concludes in April, the corporation advises reviewing the payment status.
Dates and maximum amounts of upcoming Social Security payments
The first payment day for persons who receive Supplemental Security Income (SSI) was April 1, marking the start of the SSA calendar month of April.
Then, April 3 is for people who have state-paid Medicare, live outside the United States, receive Social Security and SSI, or applied for retirement before to May 1997.
The Social Security and disability benefits (SSDI) beneficiaries who filed claims after May 1997 are then divided into three categories:
| Date | Birthdate Range |
| April 9 | Born between the 1st and 10th |
| April 16 | Born between the 11th and 20th |
| April 23 | Born between the 21st and 31st |
However, among other things, the age at which beneficiaries requested their retirement determines the maximum sums they can access:
| Age | Monthly Benefit |
| 62 | $2,831 |
| 67 | $4,018 |
| 70 | $5,108 |
Since these sums might change based on years of service and salary, every situation is different.
Source: elmira
