What changed
The Social Security Fairness Act, signed into law on January 5, 2025, repealed two rules that reduced Social Security benefits for people with pensions from jobs that did not pay Social Security taxes:
- Windfall Elimination Provision (WEP): reduced your own retirement or disability benefit if you also received a non-covered pension.
- Government Pension Offset (GPO): reduced spousal and survivor benefits by two-thirds of a government pension from non-covered work.
The repeal applies to benefits payable after December 2023, so it reached back to January 2024.
Who is affected
Only people who receive a pension based on work not covered by Social Security were ever subject to WEP and GPO. That includes many state and local government employees, teachers, police officers, and firefighters in certain states and some federal workers. If you had no non-covered pension, nothing changes for you.
Payments and increases
SSA began paying retroactive amounts on February 25, 2025, and higher monthly payments started in April 2025. SSA said people already receiving benefits did not need to apply to have their benefits recalculated.
What to do now
- Already receiving benefits and were reduced: SSA adjusts your record automatically. Check your latest award letter or your my Social Security account to confirm the new amount.
- Not yet claiming: your benefit is now computed without WEP or GPO. Use your account estimate when comparing claiming ages.
- Widowed or divorced spouse who never applied because of GPO: you may now qualify for a spousal or survivor benefit. Contact SSA at 1-800-772-1213.