U.S. Government Implements Unannounced Changes to Retirement Rules Affecting Social Security and RMDs
The U.S. government has quietly introduced three significant changes to retirement rules that impact Social Security benefits and Required Minimum Distributions (RMDs). In 2025, President Trump rolled back a Biden-era rule that limited the amount the Social Security Administration (SSA) could garnish from benefit checks for unpaid debts. Initially, the SSA briefly raised its withholding rate from 10% to 100% of benefit checks, a move described by former SSA commissioner Martin O'Malley as 'clawback cruelty,' before silently reducing it to 50% by the end of the year, according to the Empire Justice Center. Additionally, President Joe Biden signed the Social Security Fairness Act into law on January 5, 2025, repealing the Windfall Elimination Provision (WEP) and Government Pension Offset (GPO). These provisions had previously reduced or eliminated benefits for over 2.8 million public-sector workers and their spouses, including teachers, firefighters, and police officers. Finally, the age for RMDs has been pu... 
