A More Fair Social Security?

President Franklin Roosevelt would choose the social insurance approach as the "cornerstone" of his attempts to deal with the problem of economic security for a struggling nation. On June 8, 1934, President Franklin D. Roosevelt, in a message to the Congress, announced his intention to provide a program for Social Security. The bill that created the new Social Security Administration would soon follow. The problem was: there were too many options.

After many attempts to fix those myriad of choices from the original Social Security bills, Congress passed and the President signed into law on January 5, 2025, the Social Security Fairness Act of 2023. The act contains the following provisions:

• Repeals provisions that reduce Social Security benefits for individuals who receive other benefits, such as pension from state or local government.

• Eliminates the government pension offset, which in various instances reduces Social Security benefits for spouses, widows, and widowers who also receive government pensions of their own.

• Eliminates the windfall elimination provision, which in some instances reduces Social Security benefits for individuals who also receive a pension or disability benefit from an employer that did not withhold Social Security taxes.

While these changes are effective for benefits payable after December, 2023, we know it will take the Social Security Administration some time to calculate amounts owed, figure new processes, and make sure the new Act of 2023 is applied fairly to all Americans.

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