WASHINGTON (Reuters) – President Joe Biden on Sunday signed into law a measure that would boost Social Security retirement payments for some retirees who receive public pensions, such as former police officers and firefighters, in what the White House described as the first expansion of such benefits in 20 years.
The Senate voted last month to approve the Social Security Fairness Act, which would repeal two decades-old provisions that could reduce benefits for people who also receive a pension. The House of Representatives had approved it earlier.
“The bill I am signing today is about a simple proposal: Americans who have worked hard all their lives… should be able to retire with economic security and dignity,” Biden said. “That is the whole purpose of the Social Security system that Franklin Delano Roosevelt put in place nearly 90 years ago.”
The law reverses a decades-old change in the People's Retirement Program that was made to limit federal benefits for some higher-income workers who have pensions. Over time, increasing numbers of employees such as postal workers also saw their payments cap.
