On January 5, 2025, President Biden signed the Social Security Fairness Act, H.R. 82, repealing the Windfall Elimination Provision (WEP) and the Government Pension Offset (GPO) This Act was passed by a large bipartisan majority in both the House and Senate.  The repeal is retroactive to January 1, 2024.

This legislation repealed these two controversial tax provisions impacting the retirement benefits of some federal workers and other public servants into law, effectively increasing Social Security benefits for more than 2 million retirees. The WEP reduced the Social Security benefits of retired federal workers and other public servants who spent a portion of their career in the private sector in addition to a federal, state or local government job where Social Security was not intended as an element of their retirement income, such as the Civil Service Retirement System. And the GPO reduced spousal and survivor Social Security benefits in families with retired government workers.

It is anticipated that with the law’s enactment, over 2 million retired public servants impacted by the WEP and 750,000 spouses and survivors affected by the GPO may receive an average increase of $360 per month to their Social Security benefits and many may receive a lump sum payment for the money they missed out on due to the two provisions over the entirety of 2024.

Windfall Elimination Provision 

The Windfall Elimination Provision (WEP) was enacted in 1983 as part of the Social Security Amendments of 1983 (Pub. L. 98-21).  It was created to reduce Social Security benefits for certain workers who receive pension benefits from jobs that were not covered by Social Security. The WEP was intended to prevent an “unintended windfall” for workers who benefited from provisions for low lifetime earners, but who did not pay Social Security taxes.  It went into effect on April 21, 1983.  Congress thought that workers who worked both in employment covered by Social Security (covered employment) and in employment not covered by Social Security (non-covered employment) for which the employee received a pension would receive a windfall based upon how Social Security Benefits were calculated.  Such employees included teachers, police officers, fire fighters, and other state and local employees in some states.  It also affected Federal employees hired before 1984 (those hired after 1983 are covered by Social Security).  This is now repealed.

Government Pension Offset

The Government Pension Offset (GPO) was enacted in 1977 as part of the Social Security Amendments. It was created to prevent government retirees from receiving both Social Security benefits and a government annuity based on their own work. The GPO reduced Social Security benefits for a spouse or surviving spouse by two-thirds of the government pension amount by the amount of any pensions they received from non-covered employment.  In 1983, the offset was reduced to two-thirds of any pensions from non-covered employment.  The GPO affected persons who received pensions from noncovered employment who would otherwise have been eligible for Social Security based on their spouses’ or deceased spouses’ earnings.  This affected teachers, police officers, fire fighters, and other state and local employees in some states whose spouses or deceased spouses worked in covered employment.  It also affected Federal employees hired before 1984 whose spouses or deceased spouses worked in covered employment.  This is now repealed.

Since Social Security benefits are generally only payable retroactively for six months so anyone affected that might be affected should contact Social Security.  Click to go to to Social Security Fairness Act: Windfall Elimination Provision (WEP) and Government Pension Offset (GPO) web page.