By Dallas Gagnon
masslive.com
(TNS)
A bipartisan group of U.S. senators is pressing the Social Security Administration to pay full retroactive benefits to some retirees they may be owed under a landmark law passed last year.
Senators Susan Collins, Bill Cassidy, John Cornyn and John Fetterman recently sent a letter to SSA Acting Commissioner Leland Dudek urging the agency to reverse a policy that has left some beneficiaries short of the full retroactive payments the law provides.
“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,” the senators wrote.
The dispute stems from the Social Security Fairness Act, signed into law in January 2025.
The law repealed two longstanding provisions—the Windfall Elimination Provision and the Government Pension Offset—that for decades reduced or eliminated Social Security benefits for public employees who also earned pensions from jobs that didn’t pay into Social Security.
More than 3.2 million workers have been affected by these provisions, including teachers, firefighters, police officers and federal workers covered by the Civil Service Retirement System.
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For most, the law worked
For the majority of affected beneficiaries, the law delivered significant relief.
As of mid-2025, SSA reported it had sent payments to more than 3.1 million people totaling $17 billion in retroactive benefits—five months ahead of schedule.
The average monthly benefit increase is about $360, with some recipients seeing gains of over $1,000 per month.
The average lump-sum retroactive payment was $6,710, according to the SSA.
Who got left behind
The issue affects a subset of retirees who never formally applied for benefits under the prior law, when their payments would have been reduced to little or nothing.
After the law took effect, some of those individuals applied for the first time.
But the Social Security Administration applied existing rules that generally limit retroactive benefits for new applicants to six months, rather than extending payments back to January 2024—the law’s effective date.
According to SSA’s response to senators, the limitation stems from language in the original Social Security Act of 1935 that the Fairness Act did not explicitly amend.
For someone applying today, that means retroactive benefits starting only six months back rather than January 2024—a difference that could amount to thousands of dollars.
The senators argue that this reading contradicts the plain intent of the law.
“Congress did not distinguish between new and current beneficiaries in setting the Act’s effective date,” they wrote to Dudek. “We therefore urge the Commissioner to follow the plain text of the SSFA and provide full retroactivity to January 2024 to all applicants regardless of application date.”
Massachusetts public retirees’ advocacy group Mass Retirees has raised the same concern, arguing that retirees who received verbal denials under the old rules are being unfairly classified as new applicants.
What to do if you think you’re affected
Retirees who believe they may be owed additional retroactive benefits can contact their local Social Security office or visit ssa.gov to review their eligibility.
Those who have already received a determination they believe is incorrect can request a reconsideration through SSA.
The agency offers options for appealing online, by phone or by mail.
Photo caption: Sen. John Fetterman, D-PA (John Fetterman/Facebook)
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©2026 Advance Local Media LLC. Visit masslive.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency LLC.
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