Some retired teachers and first-responders will soon be able to receive enhanced social security benefits. The Social Security Administration is still finalizing rollout and can't provide an estimated timeframe.

A visit to the Social Security Office left retired teacher Sanjuanita Lopez-Handy shocked.

"So I went into the parking lot and I cried for like 30 minutes before I came home," Lopez-Handy said.

Staff told her she was ineligible to claim her late husband's social security payments. Lopez-Handy was already receiving retirement money from her teacher's pension.

"I have a daughter that I help with her student loans, college loans, so I was really counting on that money," Lopez-Handy said.

Early last month, former President Joe Biden signed the Social Security Fairness Act into law.

This means retired public school employees, law enforcement, firefighters and certain local and federal workers can now receive social security payments.

The new law eliminates two provisions that reduced spousal and widower social security benefits because the worker already contributed to a pension plan.

These old provisions impacted widows such as Lopez-Handy who tried to receive social security benefits from their late spouse.

"If your spouse passed away, you would not receive their social security compensation, which I found it grossly unjust," Congressman Vicente Gonzalez said.

Gonzalez says trying to eliminate that barrier was not easy. Only 15 states remained where certain retirees were impacted by laws that disqualified them from receiving social security payments.

"You were a realtor part-time that paid, or a summer job that paid social security, and you got zero compensation at retirement time," Gonzalez said.

According to the new law, families could get an average of $360 a month per family, or up to a $1,000 a month in social security benefits from their late spouse.

For more information on the Social Security Fairness Act, click here.

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