Social Security Fairness Act Delays Millions Payments Amid 900,000 Case Backlog

The Social Security Administration (SSA) is experiencing significant delays in routine services as it prioritizes processing complex claims under the Social Security Fairness Act, signed into law in early 2025. This law repeals the Windfall Elimination Provision and Government Pension Offset, increasing benefits and issuing retroactive payments to over 2.3 million public service retirees, including teachers, firefighters, and police officers. While automation has allowed the SSA to process about 91% of these cases and distribute over $15 billion, approximately 900,000 complex claims require manual review, causing delays in other services such as updating direct deposit information and correcting benefit errors. SSA employees have reported longer wait times and postponed appointments as staff focus on the Fairness Act payments, with some beneficiaries potentially facing payment delays or stopped checks. The SSA aims to complete processing by November 2025, with new commissioner Frank Bisignano accelerating efforts, but the complexity of cases and volume of work have led to a backlog and widespread concern among recipients. The White House maintains that current recipients should not be affected, though frontline SSA workers indicate otherwise, highlighting a tension between policy goals and practical implementation challenges.