Millions of people are noticing a surprise payment in the $6,000 range in their bank account.
The money is from the Social Security Administration, and NBC 5 Responds has heard from retirees who say they’ve received the extra cash but don’t know why.
The answer: The $6,000-ish payments are thanks to the Social Security Fairness Act, which went into effect earlier this year.
The Act eliminated two prior rules that reduced social security benefits for certain retirees who also receive pension income. The rules were the Windfall Elimination Provision (WEP) and Government Pension Offset (GPO).
“These provisions,” according to the SSA, “reduced or eliminated the Social Security benefits of over 3.2 million people who receive a pension based on work that was not covered by Social Security (a ‘non-covered pension’) because they did not pay Social Security taxes.”
The average payment is $6,710.
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