The Social Security Administration this week announced it is issuing retroactive payments and increasing monthly benefits for about 45,000 Arizona public employees, including firefighters, teachers and police.

The money is going to workers whose benefits were affected by the Windfall Elimination Provision and Government Pension Offset. The SSA said those provisions reduced or eliminated Social Security benefits for more than 3.2 million people nationally who received a pension based on work not covered by Social Security.

The Social Security Fairness Act, which was co-sponsored by U.S. Sens. Mark Kelly and Ruben Gallego, both Arizona Democrats, ended WEP and GPO. Former President Joe Biden signed it into law during his last month in office in January.

“This is huge news for teachers, firefighters and police officers in Arizona who have paid the price for a broken system and been unfairly denied the benefits they earned,” Kelly said in a statement. “Now they’re finally getting the Social Security benefits they deserve, with back pay going out this month and bigger monthly checks starting in April.

“I’ll keep pushing to make sure these payments go out quickly,” Kelly said.

Gallego said it was unacceptable that public employees weren’t getting the benefits they earned.