WEP and GPO Are Repealed: What Changed

1What the two rules did, and what replaced them

Both rules applied to people who earned a pension from a job where they did not pay Social Security tax, called non-covered work, and who also qualified for Social Security from other work or through a spouse. The Windfall Elimination Provision changed the formula for a person's own retirement or disability benefit, cutting the first and most generous part of it; in 2024 the largest possible reduction was $587 a month. The Government Pension Offset reduced spousal and survivor benefits by two-thirds of the person's non-covered pension, which often eliminated them.

The Social Security Fairness Act, signed January 5, 2025, repealed both, for benefits payable from January 2024. Social Security reported that nearly 3.2 million people were due an adjustment. Those affected included teachers and school employees in non-covered systems, police officers, firefighters and other state and local workers, federal employees under the Civil Service Retirement System, and people with a pension from a foreign government. What happens next depends on which of the situations below is yours.

2If you were already receiving a reduced benefit

Social Security made the change for you. It raised your monthly payment and paid a one-time lump sum covering the difference back to January 2024. It began paying retroactive amounts in late February 2025; by March 4, 2025 it had paid more than 1.1 million people over $7.5 billion, an average of about $6,710 each, and it later reported finishing ahead of its original schedule.

Social Security mailed a notice to each person whose benefit it adjusted, showing the new monthly amount and the back pay. To check yours, sign in to your my Social Security account, look at your current payment and download a benefit verification letter, then compare them with the notice and your bank deposits. If you believe WEP or GPO reduced your benefit and nothing has changed, call 1-800-772-1213 and ask for a review. If you disagree with a decision, you can ask for reconsideration, usually within 60 days of the notice; see our guide to appealing a benefit decision.

The same applies to disability benefits, which WEP also reduced: SSDI payments were recalculated in the same way. And if someone who was due a retroactive payment died before receiving it, the money can be paid to an eligible family member, such as a surviving spouse, or to the estate; the family should contact Social Security to claim it.

3If you never applied as a spouse or survivor

This is the group most likely to be missing out. Many spouses, widows and widowers never applied because GPO would have reduced their benefit to zero, and the repeal does not pay them automatically. You must file an application, at ssa.gov/apply or by calling 1-800-772-1213. Social Security's earlier guidance said survivors had to apply by phone, so check its current instructions before you start. Have your marriage certificate, your spouse's Social Security number and, for a survivor claim, the death certificate, along with information about your pension.

For a retirement, spousal or survivor claimant over full retirement age, back pay generally reaches up to six months before the month of application, not all the way back to January 2024, so every month of delay is a month lost. Our guides to spousal benefits and survivor benefits explain how those amounts are figured.

4If you put off claiming your own benefit because of WEP

Some workers with a non-covered pension delayed claiming, or never claimed, because WEP made their own benefit small. Without the reduction, the benefit is figured with the regular formula from your covered earnings. If you are 70 or older, waiting no longer raises it and back pay is limited to six months, so apply now. Between full retirement age and 70, waiting still earns delayed retirement credits, but the case for waiting changes now that the benefit is larger. If you are younger, the usual claiming-age trade-off applies; our guide to how much Social Security you will get explains it.

Check your record first. Your Social Security statement lists your covered earnings by year, and missing years cost money; see our guide to your earnings record.

5If you are still working in a non-covered job

Your future Social Security will be figured without WEP or GPO, so a spouse's or survivor benefit, or your own from other covered work, is no longer offset by your pension. The rest of the rules still apply. You need 40 credits, about 10 years of covered work, to qualify on your own record, and your benefit is based only on covered earnings. The repeal removed the extra reduction, not the requirement to qualify, so a few more years of covered work, for example in a second job, can still matter.

6If you also receive SSI, SNAP or Medicaid

A higher Social Security benefit counts as income for programs that test income, such as SSI, SNAP, Medicaid and the Medicare Savings Programs. Report the increase to each program; see our guide to reporting changes. For SSI, retroactive Social Security payments are not counted as resources for nine months after the month you receive them, which gives time to spend them on needs; our SSI guide explains the limits.

7What the repeal did not change

Other Social Security rules still apply to everyone affected. The permanent reduction for claiming before full retirement age, the earnings test for people who work while collecting before that age, and the tax on benefits for people with other income are untouched. Spousal and survivor benefits are still figured from the covered worker's record and still have their own age rules. And a government pension itself is unchanged: the repeal raised Social Security payments, not pensions.

8Taxes on the back pay

Up to 85 percent of Social Security benefits can be taxable, depending on your other income, and lump-sum back pay is reported on the Form SSA-1099 for the year you received it. If part of it was for an earlier year, IRS Publication 915 lets you figure the taxable amount using a lump-sum election, which can lower the tax. See our guide to taxes on Social Security.

One warning applies to every situation: the adjustment is free, and scammers have used the repeal as a pretext to ask for fees or bank details. Deal only with Social Security directly; our guide to benefit scams lists the warning signs.

9What only Social Security can tell you

This article summarizes the law and Social Security's published guidance. Whether your own benefit was reduced, and by how much, can only be answered by Social Security from your record. Pension income from non-covered work can still be taxable and can affect other benefits, which follow their own rules.