Some Nevada retirees to see thousands in back pay for Social Security

The Social Security Fairness Act — which became law Jan. 5. — eliminates the reduction of Social Security benefits for those who are entitled to public pensions from work not covered by Social Security. The law repealed two provisions that had reduced Social Security benefits for public sector employees including teachers, firefighters and police officers, as well as their spouses.

Nevada’s Democratic Rep. Dina Titus, one of the more than 300 cosponsors of the House legislation, said the law will give Nevada’s civil servants full Social Security retirement benefits they have earned.

“These dedicated public servants were shortchanged by a Social Security formula that unfairly diminished their benefits,” she said in a statement to the Review-Journal. “This has been corrected by the legislation, and 39,000 Nevadans will now get the full benefits they deserve.”

Nearly 2.5 million Americans will receive a lump-sum payment of thousands of dollars to make up for the shortfall in benefits they should have gotten in 2024, Biden said during a January press conference about the law. Social Security payments will increase by $360 a month on average, according to Biden.

“The bill I’m signing today is about a simple proposition: Americans who have worked hard all their lives to earn an honest living should be able to retire with economic security and dignity,” he said.

The Social Security Administration is still working to implement the law, according to an administration spokesperson. People who will benefit from the law do not need to take any action except to make sure the administration has their current mailing address and direct deposit information, according to the spokesperson.

Helping Nevada public employees

The Social Security Fairness Act eliminates provisions called the Government Pension Offset and the Windfall Elimination Provision, which reduced benefits for public employees who at one point worked a job that required them to pay into Social Security.

Nevadans who work for the state, such as UNLV faculty or K-12 teachers, do not participate in Social Security but rather participate in an alternative retirement plan, such as the Public Employees’ Retirement System of Nevada, according to Francine Lipman, a federal and state tax law and policy expert at UNLV.

But at one point, many public employees contributed to Social Security if they worked for a private company beforehand, Lipman said.

“This is great news for a lot of retirees already out there,” Lipman said. “So their Social Security check will increase by a certain amount, they won’t be subject to the windfall, and any new retirees aren’t going to be subject to the windfall.”

The way Social Security retiree benefits work, someone with a spouse who retires on Social Security can get up to 50 percent of their spouse’s benefits. That helps a household where a spouse didn’t work because they were a caregiver, for instance, Lipman said.

Due to the Government Pension Offset — which is now eliminated — spousal benefits would be reduced sometimes down to zero, resulting in many retirees not receiving spousal benefit, Lipman said. That will no longer be the case, she said.

The increase of deposits will be marginal, Lipman said, and they’re “not going to make anyone rich by any stretch of the imagination,” but they’ll help senior citizens and retirees whose income is static. The $300 or so a month will help with groceries, drug care costs and maybe allow people to go out for dinner a couple times more a month, Lipman said.

People can check their information by visiting www.ssa.gov/myaccount.

Contact Jessica Hill at jehill@reviewjournal.com. Follow @jess_hillyeah on X.