A bill that would let millions of people who get monthly payments from Social Security would be pushed to a vote in the Senate. It might pass in the last few days of the lame-duck Congress.
The Senate Majority Leader, Chuck Schumer, said that the Social Security Fairness Act will be put to a final vote. This bill would get rid of the rules that keep about 2.8 million people from getting full Social Security benefits.
Schumer also said that the bill would make sure that Americans do not get wrongly denied their hard-earned Social Security benefits just because they chose to work for the government.
The SSA has confirmed more benefits for Social Security beneficiaries next year
The act had 62 supporters in the Senate and was passed by the House last year with votes from both parties. Still, at least 60 senators must still support the bill for it to pass Congress. After that, it would be given to President Biden.
One of the Republican senators who pushed for the same bill last year was Mike Braun of Indiana. He said he was still thinking about supporting it next week.
The Windfall Elimination Provision and the Government Pension Offset are two federal policies that this bill, which has been in the works for decades, would get rid of.
These rules would only allow payments to two types of Social Security recipients: those who get a pension from a job that does not pay Social Security, and the surviving spouses of Social Security recipients who get a government pension.
Estimates show that the Social Security Trust Funds would not have enough money to pay out full benefits starting in 2035. The law would make things even worse for them. The Congressional Budget Office says it will add $195 billion to the federal deficit over ten years.
The nonpartisan Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget says that if the policy is approved, a typical couple with two incomes retiring in 2033 would get $25,000 less in Social Security benefits over their lifetime.
It would also move up by about six months the date when the Social Security system would run out of money. The program has support from both Democrats and Republicans, but Sen. John Thune, the second-ranking Republican in the Senate, said that some Republicans also want to fix it as part of a larger effort to change Social Security. But conservatives have been against the bill because it costs a lot.
Senator Rand Paul, a Republican from Kentucky, said he thought it was a big mistake because it showed that no one cared about the future of the country, not even for a good cause. Even so, other Republicans have put pressure on Schumer to vote on it.
Republicans from Louisiana’s Sen. Bill Cassidy said last month that the current federal restrictions hurt families whose members have worked in the public sector for part of their careers. We are talking about the punishments given to teachers, police officers, firefighters, and other people who work for the government and do good things for their communities.
When will Social Security beneficiaries receive their new COLA boost?
The Bureau of Labor Statistics says that Social Security recipients will start getting the new 2.5% cost of living adjustment on December 31. The COLA increase will start in January 2025, but because January 1 is a holiday, all SSI recipients will get their benefits at the end of this year. The SSA will send monthly benefits to retirees, survivors, and disabled people on the following dates once they get this payment:
- On January 3rd for those beneficiaries who claimed benefits before May 1997
- On January 8th for beneficiaries whose birthdates fall between the 1st and the 10th
- On January 15th for beneficiaries whose birthdates fall between the 11th and the 20th
- On January 22nd for beneficiaries whose birthdates fall between the 21st and the 31st
Also See :- Extending benefits for millions of Social Security beneficiaries in 2025 – Senate is pushing to pass new law