The Social Security Administration is moving aggressively to issue retroactive payments for more than 3 billion Americans.

The payments are a result of the passage of Social Security Fairness Act which repealed the Windfall Elimination Provision and Government Pension Offset. To date, Social Security has paid 1.13 million people more than $7.5 billion in retroactive payments.

The average retroactive payment so far is $6,710.

“President Trump made it very clear he wanted the Social Security Fairness Act to be implemented as quickly as possible,” said Lee Dudek, Acting Commissioner of Social Security. “We met that challenge head on and are proudly delivering for the American people.”

WEP and GPO reduced or eliminated the Social Security benefits for over 3.2 million people who receive a pension based on work that was not covered by Social Security, known as a “non-covered pension,” because they did not pay Social Security taxes.

The agency said it will continue to pay remaining retroactive payments and is ready to begin paying higher monthly benefit payments beginning in April for people’s March benefit.

The Social Security Fairness Act was signed into law in late January, repealing WEP and GPO. WEP impacted workers who received pension benefits from work where Social Security taxes were not withheld, resulting in smaller retirement benefits. GPO covered individuals with public pensions from jobs that didn’t take out Social Security taxes who lost access to their spouse’s Social Security benefits, including deceased and ex-spouses.

Those benefiting from the new law include some teachers, firefighters and police officers in many states, federal employees covered by the Civil Service Retirement System and people whose work has been covered by a foreign social security system.

State and local public employees who pay into Social Security are not covered by WEP or GPO and will not receive the benefit increase.