The Social Security Fairness Act: what the WEP and GPO repeal changed

Key points

• The Social Security Fairness Act (Public Law 118-273), signed January 5, 2025, repealed the Windfall Elimination Provision (WEP) and the Government Pension Offset (GPO) for benefits payable for months after December 2023.
• It matters to people with a pension from work that did not pay Social Security tax (such as some teachers, police officers and firefighters, federal workers under the Civil Service Retirement System, and people with a foreign social security pension) and to family members paid on such a worker’s record. SSA says about 72% of state and local employees pay into Social Security and are not affected.
• SSA paid the increase back to January 2024 as a one-time payment and raised monthly checks. It reported over 3.1 million payments totaling $17 billion by July 7, 2025.
• Anyone who never applied because WEP or GPO would have cut the benefit has to file an application to be paid. A new application generally reaches back at most 6 months, and not to months that would cut the benefit for claiming before full retirement age.

WEP and GPO were two rules in the Social Security Act that cut benefits for people who also had a pension from “non-covered” work, meaning a job that did not withhold Social Security tax. WEP cut the person’s own retirement or disability benefit. GPO cut a spouse’s or surviving spouse’s benefit. The Fairness Act deleted both.

This guide explains who the change reaches, how the old rules worked in numbers, what changed for spouses and survivors, what SSA paid and when, and what is left to do. For the rest of the system, see our guide to Social Security benefits. It covers federal rules only.

We checked the law, the U.S. Code before and after the repeal, the regulations, SSA’s Fairness Act page, press releases and publications on October 27, 2026. The sources are listed at the end.

What did the Social Security Fairness Act do?

The law is short. Its own title says it is an act “to repeal the Government pension offset and windfall elimination provisions”:

Section of the Act	What it did
Section 2	Struck section 202(k)(5) of the Social Security Act: the GPO
Section 3	Struck sections 215(a)(7), 215(d)(3) and 215(f)(9): the WEP
Section 4	Applied the repeal to benefits payable for months after December 2023, and told SSA to adjust primary insurance amounts

The House passed it on November 12, 2024 and the Senate on December 20, 2024. It was approved on January 5, 2025, and its short title is the “Social Security Fairness Act of 2023”.

The repeal reached back a year before the signing. December 2023 is the last month WEP and GPO apply. They still apply to benefits for months before January 2024, so SSA may still ask some people about their pension to check those months.

One oddity for readers who look up the rules: the regulations that describe WEP (20 CFR 404.213) and GPO (20 CFR 404.408a) were still in the eCFR, unchanged, when we checked. SSA’s pages say it no longer reduces benefits because of pensions from jobs that did not pay into Social Security.

Who does the Fairness Act affect?

People with a pension based on work not covered by Social Security, and family members paid on such a worker’s record (see “Spouses of WEP-affected workers” below). Among the pension holders, SSA lists:

• some teachers, firefighters and police officers in many states;
• federal employees covered by the Civil Service Retirement System (CSRS);
• people whose work was covered by a foreign social security system.

Working in the public sector is not enough. SSA says about 72% of state and local public employees work in jobs covered by Social Security, pay Social Security tax and are not affected by WEP or GPO. Their benefits did not change.

SSA’s count of the people affected moved over time. Its February 25, 2025 press release put it at over 3.2 million. Its July 10, 2025 blog said that when the law passed it identified “about 2.8 million current Social Security beneficiaries” whose benefits WEP or GPO had reduced, and its Fairness Act page uses over 2.8 million. GPO alone applied to 734,601 spouse and widow(er) beneficiaries in 2022, and nearly 70% of them had the whole benefit offset.

The size of the change varies. SSA says some people’s benefits rose very little while others may get over $1,000 more each month.

How WEP worked, and the before and after

Social Security’s benefit formula pays a higher share of lower earnings. It takes your average indexed monthly earnings (AIME) and pays 90% of the first part, 32% of the middle part and 15% of the rest. The result is the primary insurance amount (PIA), your monthly benefit at full retirement age. Our guide to how Social Security is calculated walks through it.

Someone who spent much of a career in non-covered work has few covered years, so their AIME looks low and the 90% step favored them. WEP removed that advantage:

• The factor. For people who reached 62 in 1990 or later, the 90% became as little as 40%. With 21 to 29 years of substantial covered earnings it was 45% to 85% (65% at 25 years). With 30 or more years, WEP did not apply.
• The cap. The cut could not be more than half of the monthly pension earned in non-covered work after 1956. SSA used whichever result was larger: the reduced-factor formula, or the normal PIA minus half that pension.
• Survivors. WEP never applied to survivor benefits. When the worker died, SSA recomputed the PIA without WEP.

Example. A worker turned 62 in 2023, so the 2023 bend points apply: $1,115 and $6,721. AIME is $3,000, and the whole pension comes from non-covered work after 1956. The normal PIA is 90% of $1,115 ($1,003.50) plus 32% of the next $1,885 ($603.20): $1,606.70. Monthly PIA before cost-of-living increases and before any cut for claiming early:

Non-covered pension and covered years	PIA under WEP	WEP cut	PIA after the Act
$1,500 pension, 20 or fewer years (40%)	$1,049.20	$557.50	$1,606.70
$1,500 pension, 25 years (65%)	$1,327.90	$278.80	$1,606.70
$600 pension, 20 or fewer years (40%)	$1,306.70	$300.00	$1,606.70
Any pension, 30 or more years	$1,606.70	none	$1,606.70

In the first row the 40% formula gives $1,049.20, and the normal PIA minus half the $1,500 pension gives $856.70; the larger, $1,049.20, applied. In the third row half of the $600 pension is $300, so the cap held the cut to $300.00 and the PIA under WEP was $1,306.70. The largest possible WEP cut for someone who turned 62 in 2023 was $557.50, half of the $1,115 bend point. Since January 2024, the PIA in every row is $1,606.70.

To see the restored PIA at every claiming age, run it in our Social Security calculator. It shows $1,607 at 67 because it rounds to the nearest dollar; SSA rounds a monthly check down to the next lower dollar, $1,606. Like the table, these figures leave out the cost-of-living increases since 2023.

How GPO worked, and the before and after

GPO cut a spouse’s or surviving spouse’s Social Security benefit by two-thirds of a government pension from non-covered work, down to zero if two-thirds of the pension was larger. It applied to wife’s, husband’s, widow(er)’s, mother’s, father’s, divorced spouse’s and surviving divorced spouse’s benefits. One of several exceptions: GPO did not apply if the last 60 months of the government job were covered by both Social Security and the pension plan.

SSA’s own example: a $3,000 monthly civil service pension, two-thirds of it $2,000, and a $2,100 spouse’s or surviving spouse’s benefit left $100 a month. Two more, with the same rule:

Government pension	Two-thirds of it	Survivor benefit	Paid under GPO	Paid after the Act
$3,000	$2,000	$2,100	$100	$2,100
$1,200	$800	$1,500	$700	$1,500
$3,600	$2,400	$2,100	$0	$2,100

“Paid after the Act” is before any other reduction, such as the one for the person’s own Social Security benefit, below.

What changed for spousal and survivor benefits

• GPO is gone. For benefits payable for January 2024 and later, a non-covered government pension no longer reduces a spouse’s or survivor’s benefit. The Act covers benefits on your own record and spouse’s or surviving spouse’s benefits on another person’s record.
• Spouses of WEP-affected workers. SSA used the WEP-reduced PIA to set the benefits of everyone paid on that worker’s record. A spouse’s benefit is at most half the worker’s PIA, so restoring the worker’s full PIA can raise the spouse’s benefit too.
• Survivors. WEP never reduced survivor benefits, so for survivors the change is the end of GPO on their own government pension.
• What did not change. A spouse’s or survivor benefit is still reduced dollar for dollar by the person’s own Social Security retirement benefit. That rule sits in a different paragraph of section 202(k), which the Act left in place. A widow with a $1,500 survivor benefit and her own $900 Social Security retirement benefit still gets $1,500 in all, not $2,400.

How the survivor amount itself is figured (age at the start, delayed credits, the limit when the worker claimed early) is in our survivor benefits guide. The spouse rules are in our spousal benefits guide.

Retroactive payments: what SSA paid and when

The law reached back to January 2024, so most people were owed back pay. SSA paid it as a one-time deposit to the bank account on file, covering the increase back to January 2024. Benefits are paid the month after they are due: the January 2024 benefit was generally paid in February 2024.

Date	What SSA reported
February 25, 2025	Began paying back pay and adjusting benefits. Most people to get the back payment by the end of March, and the higher monthly amount first in the April payment.
March 4, 2025	1,127,723 people paid more than $7.5 billion; average back payment $6,710.
April 29, 2025	Over $14.8 billion paid to more than 2.2 million people.
July 7, 2025	Over 3.1 million payments totaling $17 billion completed, 5 months ahead of schedule.
July 10, 2025	Over 278,000 new claims from people with non-covered pensions, 92% processed. SSA expected monthly benefits of people already on the rolls to be adjusted by July 2025.
July 21, 2025	Fairness Act page updated: 289,715 new applications by the week ending July 17, 2025, 92% completed.
September 30, 2025	Over 387,000 new initial claims taken. The same report gives the average back payment as $7,208. Source: SSA’s Agency Financial Report for fiscal year 2025, published January 2026.

Most people got the new monthly amount in April 2025, for the March 2025 benefit. So for most, the back payment covered 14 months of benefits, January 2024 through February 2025. In the second GPO row above, the offset took $800 a month; if the pension stayed at $1,200, 14 months of that is $11,200. Real amounts depend on SSA’s records for each month.

Back pay for those months went only to people entitled to benefits that WEP or GPO actually reduced then. SSA sent mailed notices, sometimes two, and the money could arrive before the letter. SSA’s Fairness Act page still showed the July 21, 2025 update when we checked on October 27, 2026. The latest count we found is the September 30, 2025 figure in the table, which SSA repeated in its budget request for fiscal year 2027.

If you never applied because of WEP or GPO

Some people never filed for a spouse’s or survivor’s benefit because GPO would have wiped it out, or for retirement because of WEP. The back pay above did not reach them, because it went only to people already entitled to a reduced benefit.

• File an application. SSA’s page: “You may need to file an application.” The Act did not change how far back an application reaches: generally 6 months before the month you apply for retirement and survivor benefits, 12 months for some disability claims. It generally cannot reach back to months before full retirement age at all, because paying those months would cut the benefit for age; one exception is a widow or widower aged 60 or older who applies in the month after the death. The usual rules still apply, including the cut for claiming before full retirement age and the earnings test.
• How to apply. Retirement and spouse’s benefits can be applied for online at ssa.gov/apply. Survivor applications are not online; SSA takes them by phone appointment or in person. Our guide to applying for Social Security retirement covers the steps.
• Someone who died. If a person died before being paid what the Act owed them, the form for claiming it is SSA-1724-F4, Claim for Amounts Due in the Case of a Deceased Beneficiary.
• Scams. SSA says it will never ask anyone to pay to have benefits started, increased or paid.

One thing did not go away: state and local employers still have to give employees hired from January 1, 2005 form SSA-1945, the statement about a job not covered by Social Security.

Taxes on the back payment

The taxable part of back pay counts in the year it is received, even the part that is for 2024. The IRS lump-sum election lets you refigure the taxable part of the earlier year’s benefits using that year’s income, which can lower the tax. It is figured on the current return; the IRS says not to amend the earlier year’s return. On 2025 returns the election is a checkbox on Form 1040, line 6c, and IRS Publication 915 has the worksheets. How benefits are taxed in general is in is Social Security taxable?

About this guide

Written by the Diversify Guy editorial desk. Diversify Guy is a pen name. It is the byline of our editorial team, not a single individual. We do not publish personal trading records or claim to be your adviser. We tell you where every figure came from so you can check it yourself. How we work and how we get paid.

This guide explains federal rules. It is not personalized tax, legal or investment advice. Diversify Guy earns affiliate commissions and advertising fees from companies featured elsewhere on the site. This page carries no ads and no affiliate links.

Sources and check dates

All sources were fetched and checked on October 27, 2026.

• Public Law 118-273, Social Security Fairness Act of 2023, January 5, 2025, 138 Stat. 3232: https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/PLAW-118publ273/html/PLAW-118publ273.htm
• 42 U.S.C. 402 and 415, U.S. Code 2022 edition (WEP and GPO before the repeal): https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/USCODE-2022-title42/html/USCODE-2022-title42-chap7-subchapII-sec402.htm and https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/USCODE-2022-title42/html/USCODE-2022-title42-chap7-subchapII-sec415.htm
• 42 U.S.C. 402 and 415, U.S. Code 2024 edition (as amended, with the effective-date note): https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/USCODE-2024-title42/html/USCODE-2024-title42-chap7-subchapII-sec402.htm and https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/USCODE-2024-title42/html/USCODE-2024-title42-chap7-subchapII-sec415.htm
• 20 CFR 404.212, 404.213 (WEP computation), 404.304, 404.333, 404.407, 404.408a (GPO) and 404.621 (months before the application), eCFR, title 20 up to date as of October 23, 2026: https://www.ecfr.gov/current/title-20/section-404.213, https://www.ecfr.gov/current/title-20/section-404.408a and https://www.ecfr.gov/current/title-20/section-404.621
• SSA, Social Security Fairness Act: WEP and GPO update (last updated July 21, 2025): https://www.ssa.gov/benefits/retirement/social-security-fairness-act.html
• SSA press release, February 25, 2025: https://www.ssa.gov/news/en/press/releases/2025-02-25-a.html
• SSA press release, March 4, 2025: https://www.ssa.gov/news/en/press/releases/2025-03-04.html
• SSA press release, April 29, 2025: https://www.ssa.gov/news/en/press/releases/2025-04-29.html
• SSA press release, July 7, 2025: https://www.ssa.gov/news/en/press/releases/2025-07-07.html
• SSA blog, July 10, 2025: https://www.ssa.gov/blog/en/posts/2025-07-10.html
• SSA, Agency Financial Report, fiscal year 2025 (January 2026), Other Information, page 179: https://www.ssa.gov/finance/2025/Other%20Information.pdf
• SSA, fiscal year 2027 Congressional Justification, Limitation on Administrative Expenses: https://www.ssa.gov/budget/assets/materials/2027/FY27_Limitation_on_Administrative_Expenses.pdf
• SSA Legislative Bulletin on H.R. 82: https://www.ssa.gov/legislation/legis_bulletin_010624.html
• SSA, Government and foreign pensions: https://www.ssa.gov/prepare/government-and-foreign-pensions
• SSA Publication No. 05-10045, Windfall Elimination Provision, January 2026: https://www.ssa.gov/pubs/EN-05-10045.pdf
• SSA Publication No. 05-10007, Government Pension Offset, March 2025: https://www.ssa.gov/pubs/EN-05-10007.pdf
• SSA Program Explainer: Government Pension Offset, May 2024: https://www.ssa.gov/policy/docs/program-explainers/government-pension-offset.html
• SSA POMS RS 00605.360, Windfall Elimination Provision: https://secure.ssa.gov/apps10/poms.nsf/lnx/0300605360
• SSA Office of the Chief Actuary, benefit formula bend points: https://www.ssa.gov/oact/cola/bendpoints.html
• SSA, Apply for Social Security benefits, Survivor benefits: https://www.ssa.gov/apply?benefits=survivor_adult&age=adult
• IRS Publication 915 (2025), Social Security and Equivalent Railroad Retirement Benefits: https://www.irs.gov/publications/p915