WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden on Sunday plans to sign into law a assess that boosts Social safety payments for current and former community employees, affecting nearly 3 million people who receive pensions from their period as teachers, firefighters, police officers and in other community service jobs.

Advocates declare the Social safety Fairness Act rights a decades-ancient disparity, though it will also put strain on Social safety depend Funds, which face a looming insolvency crisis.

The statement rescinds two provisions — the Windfall Elimination Provision and the Government superannuation Offset — that limit Social safety benefits for recipients if they get superannuation payments from other sources, including community superannuation programs from a state or local government.

The Congressional Research Service estimated that in December 2023, there were 745,679 people, about 1% of all Social safety beneficiaries, who had their benefits reduced by the Government superannuation Offset. About 2.1 million people, or about 3% of all beneficiaries, were affected by the Windfall Elimination Provision.

The Congressional apportionment Office estimated in September that eliminating the Windfall Elimination Provision would boost monthly payments to the affected beneficiaries by an average of $360 by December 2025. Ending the Government superannuation Offset would boost monthly benefits in December 2025 by an average of $700 for 380,000 recipients getting benefits based on living spouses, according to the CBO. The boost would be an average of $1,190 for 390,000 or surviving spouses getting a widow or widower advantage.

Those amounts would boost over period with Social safety’s regular expense-of-living adjustments.

The transformation is to payments from January 2024 and beyond, meaning the Social safety Administration would owe back-dated payments. The assess as passed by Congress says the Social safety commissioner “shall adjust primary insurance amounts to the extent essential to receive into account” changes in the law. It’s not immediately obvious how this will happen or whether people affected will have to receive any action.

Edward Kelly, president of the International Association of Fire Fighters, said firefighters across the country are “enthusiastic to view the transformation — we’ve righted a 40-year incorrect.” Kelly said the policy was “far more egregious for surviving spouses of firefighters who paid their own quotas into Social safety but were victimized by the government superannuation structure.”

The IAFF has roughly 320,000 members, which does not include hundreds of thousands of retirees who will advantage from the transformation.

“Now firefighters who get paid very little can now afford to actually retire,” Kelly said.

Sherrod Brown, who as an Ohio senator pushed for the proposal for years, lost his reelection bid in November. Lee Saunders, president of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees labor union, thanked Brown for his advocacy.

“Over two million community service workers will finally be able to access the Social safety benefits they spent their careers paying into,” Saunders said in a statement. “Many will finally be able to enjoy superannuation after a lifetime of service.”

National Education Association President Becky Pringle said the law is “a historic win that will enhance the lives of educators, first responders, postal workers and others who dedicate their lives to community service in their communities.”

And while some Republicans such as Maine Sen. Susan Collins supported the legislation, others, including Sens. John Thune of South Dakota, Rand Paul of Kentucky and Thom Tillis of North Carolina, voted against it. “We caved to the pressure of the instant instead of doing this on a sustainable basis,” Tillis told The Associated Press last month.

Still, Republican supporters of the statement said there was a rare chance to address what they described as an unfair section of federal law that hurts community service retirees.

The upcoming of Social safety has become a top political issue and was a major point of contention in the 2024 election. About 72.5 million people, including retirees, disabled people and children, receive Social safety benefits.

The policy changes from the recent law will heap more administrative work on the Social safety Administration, which is already at its lowest staffing level in decades. The agency, currently under a hiring freeze, has a staff of about 56,645 — the lowest level in over 50 years even as it serves more people than ever.

The annual Social safety and Medicare trustees update released last May said the program’s depend capital apportionment will be unable to pay packed benefits beginning in 2035. The recent law will hasten the program’s insolvency date by about half a year. ___

Associated Press writer Stephen Groves contributed to this update.