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Date: January 17, 2025
Dear Tribal Leader & Urban Indian Organization Leader:
On behalf of Carolyn Colvin, Acting Commissioner of the Social Security Administration (SSA), I am pleased to share updates to our benefits program and our office activities. Pursuant to the Presidential Memorandum on Tribal Consultation and Strengthening Nation-to-Nation Relationships, SSA is sharing an update to the Social Security Fairness Act.
On January 5, 2015, the Social Security Fairness Act, HR 82, concerning the Windfall Elimination Provision and Government Pension Offset, was signed into law. At this time, evaluations are being conducted on its implementation, but I encourage you to follow, by subscribing, on our Social Security Fairness Act: Windfall Elimination Provision (WEP) and Government Pension Offset (GPO) update | SSA page for the most up-to-date information. Additionally, I want to highlight this point from President Biden’s remarks that “Over two and a half million Americans are going to receive a lump-sum payment of thousands of dollars to make up for the shortfall in the benefits they should have gotten in 2024.” As more information becomes available, I look forward to sharing at an upcoming training for those benefit coordinators, navigators, and other Tribal social workers serving your Tribal members.
Share with your Benefits Staff & Specialists. We are kick starting our 2025 calendar year with the announcement of our FREE training workshops as Webinar Wednesdays. I encourage you to share this month’s FREE virtual training series focused on topics important to Tribal communities. Each session includes ample time for a Q&A discussion with SSA experts. This month’s training will be Getting to Know SSI (SSI Overview) with the following registration options:
Updates per Executive Orders. Lastly, I want to share our FY 2024 Tribal Consultation Progress Report which highlights all the great accomplishments achieved last fiscal year. SSA has established and maintained connections with many partners for future efforts supporting our nation-to-nation relationship. I am committed to building upon our accomplishments while exploring new opportunities to improve services for beneficiaries in Tribal communities.
I will continue to keep you informed with updates to our policies that affect Native nations through our Dear Tribal Leader Letter. I encourage you to subscribe to receive notifications of new letters when they are published.
Sincerely,
Reneé Ferguson, Director
Office of Native American Partnerships
Office of the Commissioner
Social Security Administration
www.SSA.gov/people/aian