KEY TAKEAWAYS Retired public workers who benefit from the new Social Security Fairness Act will see increased benefits immediately.The law was signed in January, but the Social Security Administration (SSA) said it would take over a year to disburse increased benefits.

Together, WEP and GPO affect nearly 3 million Americans including police officers, firefighters, postal workers and public-school teachers.   The number of payments SSA has made is a tiny fraction of the millions of Americans who may be entitled to bigger Social Security checks,