Legislation
PRTA is an affiliate of the Texas Retired Teachers Association (TRTA).TRTA is the only statewide organization in Texas that works exclusively for retired public school and higher education personnel at the legislative level to maintain or improve benefits to all retirees.
TRTA is the largest organization of its kind in the United States.
Membership in PRTA/TRTA provides advocacy on issues important to retirees, including working for a Cost of Living Adjustment (COLA) and repealing the Windfall Elimination Program (WEP).
Social Security Administration Announces Implementation of WEP/GPO Repeal Dates
Tim Lee provided a breaking news update!
The Social Security Administration (SSA) announced on February 25, 2025, that the implementation of the repeal of the Windfall Elimination Provision (WEP) and Government Pension Offset (GPO) is underway.
“Starting the week of February 24, 2025, SSA is beginning to pay retroactive benefits and will increase monthly benefit payments to people whose benefits have been affected by the WEP and GPO.
If a beneficiary is due retroactive benefits as a result of the Act, they will receive a one-time retroactive payment, deposited into the bank account SSA has on file, by the end of March. This retroactive payment will cover the increase in their benefit amount back to January 2024, the month when WEP and GPO no longer apply.
Social Security benefits are paid one month behind. Most affected beneficiaries will begin receiving their new monthly benefit amount in April 2025 (for their March 2025 benefit).
Anyone whose monthly benefit is adjusted, or who will get a retroactive payment, will receive a mailed notice from Social Security explaining the benefit change or retroactive payment.
NOTE: A beneficiary may receive two mailed notices, the first when WEP or GPO is removed from their record, and a second when their monthly benefit amount is adjusted for their new monthly payment amount. They may receive the retroactive payment before receiving the mailed notice.
We have been able to expedite payments due to the use of automation. For the many complex cases that cannot be processed automatically, additional time is required to manually update the records and pay both retroactive benefits and the new benefits amount.
We urge beneficiaries to wait until April to inquire about the status of their retroactive payment, since these payments will process incrementally throughout March.
Beneficiaries should also wait until after receiving their April payment before contacting SSA to ask about their monthly benefit amount because the new amount will not be reflected until April for their March payment.”
The Texas Retired Teachers Association (TRTA) thanks its members for contacting their congressmen about this urgent matter and also expresses its gratitude to our Texas congressional delegation for doing all they can to help expedite this process.
We know hundreds of thousands of public education retirees and other public service retirees in Texas have been waiting for this moment for decades! TRTA is pleased to hear that the implementation of the Social Security Fairness Act will not take 12 to 18 months as originally projected, and that our members and other public servants will have their hard-earned benefits restored in a timely fashion.
Also, a special thanks to Sen. Bill Cassidy who alerted TRTA to this breaking news!