President Joe Biden on Sunday plans to sign into law a measure that boosts Social Security payments for current and former public employees, affecting nearly 3 million people who receive pensions from their time as teachers, firefighters, police officers and in other public service jobs.

In 2024, the life expectancy for someone born in 1959 was 74 for men and 80.1 for women, according to a Social Security report. The report predicts continuing increases in life expectancy, which translates into even more years that beneficiaries will receive Social Security checks.

In 1983, Congress passed a law that gradually increased the age at which people may receive 100% of their Social Security benefits from 65 to 67, a change that was felt over the following decades as Americans approached their retirement age, according to Bipartisan Policy Cente r. The increase aimed to match increasing life expectancy.

A half-dozen changes, concerning everything from Social Security checks to the payroll tax select workers will owe, are now in effect.