SPRINGFIELD – Social Security rules for public safety retirees such as police officers and firefighters have been totally re-written as a result of federal legislation passed and signed on January 5, and a newly-updated guide offers the best way to navigate those changes.
The Third Edition of the IPPFA Retirement Guide adds a new section regarding the 2025 Social Security Fairness Act, the latest updates on Illinois fire and police pensions, new savings limits in Section 457 deferred compensation plans, and retirement healthcare funding.
“The Social Security Fairness Act increases benefits for fire and police personnel who have pensions from work that is not covered by Social Security, and this affects the majority of downstate Illinois fire and police personnel,” said James McNamee, president of the Illinois Public Pension Fund Association (IPPFA), the guide’s publisher. “The law also repealed the Government Pension Offset that reduced or eliminated limited benefits that a police officer or firefighter might earn from a spouse’s Social Security record. Our new guide explains those changes and helps retirees to get the benefits to which they are entitled under the new law.”
IPPFA Retirement Guide is written for the men and women who serve or have served in Illinois as police officers and firefighters under the “downstate” Article 3 and Article 4 pension systems. This includes most municipalities and fire protection districts, regardless of their location in Illinois, other than Chicago and smaller towns under 5,000 in population.
The IPPFA Retirement Guide Third Edition is now available on Amazon.com for $9.99. It is also available from the IPPFA Office for bulk sales of 10 books or more at a reduced price of $7.50 per book. For more information visit www.ippfa.org and find the “Retirement Guide Book Order Form.” Bulk purchasers can also contact IPPFA directly at (630) 784-0406 or info@ippfa.org.
The IPPFA was founded in 1985 as a not-for-profit organization whose mandate was to educate public pension fund trustees. In 2009 the IPPFA became the primary education provider for public pension fund trustees in the state of Illinois, and its members manage benefits for more than 40,000 active and retired fire and police personnel with more than $18 billion in pension assets.