BATON ROUGE — When Congress passed the Social Security Fairness Act into law in January 2025, it marked a long-awaited victory for more than a million Americans who had been unfairly denied full Social Security benefits. For one Louisiana family, however, the moment carried an even deeper significance.
The Fight to Repeal the Government Pension Offset and WEP
Terrence Ginn’s mother dedicated her life to public service as a state employee. Like many others, she faced a harsh financial reality when the Government Pension Offset slashed her late husband’s Social Security survivor benefits from $1,800 to just $350 a month. The strain of that loss was compounded when she was diagnosed with an aggressive form of cancer.
“We’re not talking about a rich woman, so that $1,800 would have been a big help because it would have put her back to what she was making when she was working,” Ginn said.
One of the champions of the legislation that ultimately restored these benefits was former Baton Rouge Congressman Garret Graves. He fought for years to repeal the Windfall Elimination Provision and GPO, two provisions that had reduced Social Security benefits for retirees receiving pensions from jobs that did not pay into Social Security, such as state employees.
MORE: Graves, Spanberger leading charge to repeal WEP, GPO
When Congress finally passed the bipartisan bill with a 76-20 vote in the Senate on December 20, 2024, Graves personally visited Ginn’s mother at her home. Though in hospice care, she wanted to express her gratitude before it was too late.
“She had been relaying messages to me for years, and when it finally got done, she sent word that she wanted to talk,” Graves recalled. “I did meet with her, and I know this is such a difficult thing for us to imagine going through, but here you have a person who is on their deathbed, and this is what they care about, giving you an indication of how impactful it is.”
Ginn said the visit meant the world to his mother in her final weeks.
“My mom thanked him for that. She said, ‘Thank you for doing what is right because this is not a handout for me, my husband worked for this.’”
Sadly, she passed away just weeks after Biden signed the bill, never receiving another check. However, her sons, including Ginn, received 14 months of retroactive Social Security payments.
How the Social Security Fairness Act 2025 Impacts Retirees
The Social Security Administration estimates that as of March 4, the average retroactive payment totaled $6,710, with more than $7.5 billion already distributed. The legislation is expected to impact 3.2 million Americans who previously received pensions from non-covered employment, helping restore benefits they had long been denied.
Graves reflected on the years of effort behind the bill’s passage.
“Congress is hard. I’m not going to lie. It’s a hard place to work. There are a lot of people who don’t have honest intentions or don’t understand the job,” Graves said. “To work as hard as you do and in some cases not get things into the end zone, it’s just hard. It’s hard to keep going when you’re sleeping just a few hours a night, working your butt off trying to get the right thing done, and you can’t because of politics.
“But when you get something done like this, it is without question one of the most profound measures in decades in terms of how big it was, how impactful it was, and how long people have been fighting for this one.”
For Ginn, the legislation is not just about his family but about millions of others across the country.
“You look at elderly people who live on a very, very fixed income, and hopefully, this will provide a better financial quality of life for those it’s going to help,” he said.
The SSA continues processing remaining retroactive payments and will begin issuing higher monthly benefits in April for eligible recipients.
Download the Unfiltered with Kiran app from the Apple App Store and Google Play to stay updated on the latest news across the Capital area.
Support UWK and its mission to deliver The News You Deserve. Unfiltered. Become a monthly patron on Patreon today!
