The Social Security Fairness Act, signed into law on January 5, 2025, ended the Windfall Elimination Provision (WEP) and the Government Pension Offset (GPO). Both rules cut Social Security for people who also get a pension from a job that did not pay Social Security taxes, such as many teachers, police officers, firefighters, and federal workers under the old Civil Service Retirement System (CSRS). December 2023 was the last month either rule applied. Benefits payable for January 2024 and later are figured without them. If you were already collecting, Social Security has almost certainly raised your check and paid you back pay. If you never applied because WEP or GPO would have shrunk your benefit to little or nothing, nothing happens until you file, and back pay on a new application is generally limited to six months.
That last point is where most of the money is still being lost, so this page spends time on it.
The Social Security Fairness Act at a Glance
| Item | What Social Security says |
|---|
| Signed into law | January 5, 2025 |
| What it ended | The Windfall Elimination Provision (WEP) and the Government Pension Offset (GPO) |
| Last month WEP and GPO applied | December 2023 |
| First month without them | Benefits payable for January 2024 (paid in February 2024) |
| People whose benefits WEP or GPO had reduced or eliminated | Over 2.8 million |
| Back payments sent to people already on benefits | Over 3.1 million payments, about $17 billion, completed July 7, 2025 |
| New monthly amount started | April 2025 for most people (the March 2025 benefit) |
| Back pay for someone who never applied | Generally up to 6 months before the month you file, not back to January 2024 |
| Applies to | Your own retirement or disability benefit, and spouse's or surviving spouse's benefits |
Source: Social Security Administration, Social Security Fairness Act page (last updated July 21, 2025, still the current version in late October 2026).
What WEP and GPO Did
These were two separate rules that hit two different kinds of benefit.
The Windfall Elimination Provision cut your own retirement or disability benefit if you also earned a pension from non-covered work. Social Security's normal formula pays 90% of your first band of average monthly earnings. WEP could drop that 90% to as low as 40%. People with 30 or more years of substantial covered earnings were exempt, and the cut could not be more than half of the pension.
The Government Pension Offset cut spouse's and widow's or widower's benefits. It subtracted two-thirds of your non-covered government pension from the spousal or survivor benefit you would otherwise get. For a lot of retired teachers, two-thirds of the pension was bigger than the whole spousal benefit, so the benefit went to zero.
| Rule | Benefit it cut | How the cut worked | Status |
|---|
| WEP | Your own retirement or SSDI | Lowered the 90% formula factor, to as low as 40% | Repealed from January 2024 |
| GPO | Spouse's and survivor's benefits | Subtracted 2/3 of your non-covered pension | Repealed from January 2024 |
Who Gets More Money Now
Only people who get a pension from work not covered by Social Security. A job title alone does not tell you. Social Security says about 72% of state and local government workers pay Social Security taxes, and they were never touched by WEP or GPO, so the Act changes nothing for them.
The groups most often affected:
- Teachers and school staff in states or districts that opted out of Social Security (common in states like California, Texas, Ohio, Illinois, Massachusetts, Louisiana, and Colorado, though coverage varies by district)
- Police officers and firefighters in departments outside Social Security
- Federal workers under CSRS, which started before 1984 and did not pay into Social Security
- People with a pension from work covered by a foreign social security system
- Spouses and widows or widowers of any of the above, if the spouse or survivor has their own non-covered pension
If you work for the federal government under FERS, you pay Social Security taxes, and WEP and GPO never applied to you.
How Much Your Check Can Go Up
Social Security says the change "can vary greatly." Some people see a few dollars. Others get more than $1,000 a month more. It depends on which benefit you get and how big your pension is.
Two illustrations with made-up numbers show why the GPO repeal is usually the larger change.
| Example (illustration only) | Before the Act | After the Act |
|---|
| Retired teacher, $3,000/mo pension, spousal benefit of $1,000 at full retirement age | $1,000 minus $2,000 (2/3 of pension) = $0 | $1,000 |
| Widow, $2,400/mo pension, survivor benefit of $1,800 | $1,800 minus $1,600 = $200 | $1,800 |
| Retiree with WEP, average monthly earnings of $3,000, 2026 formula | About $1,062 (40% factor) | About $1,705 (90% factor) |
The WEP row uses the 2026 bend points ($1,286 and $7,749) for someone first eligible in 2026. Your real benefit uses the bend points from the year you turned 62 and your own earnings record. Check your actual figure in your my Social Security account.
Restored benefits get the same cost-of-living increase as everyone else. The 3.6% COLA announced on October 14, 2026 applies to benefits starting January 2027.
If You Were Already Getting Benefits
If WEP or GPO was reducing a benefit you already received, Social Security did the work without an application. Starting February 25, 2025, it removed WEP and GPO from records, recalculated monthly amounts, and sent a one-time back payment to the bank account on file covering the increase back to January 2024. By July 7, 2025, it had sent over 3.1 million of those payments.
You should have received one or two mailed notices: one when WEP or GPO came off your record, and one with your new monthly amount.
If you think you were affected and never saw a change:
- Sign in to your my Social Security account at ssa.gov/myaccount and look at your benefit amount and payment history.
- Confirm your mailing address and direct deposit are correct. Wrong contact details slow payments down.
- Call Social Security at 1-800-772-1213 and ask whether the Social Security Fairness Act change was processed on your record.
Social Security may also mail you a request for your pension amount. That is normal: WEP and GPO still apply to months before January 2024, and the agency sometimes needs your pension figure to check those older months.
If You Never Applied: File Now
This is the group still leaving money on the table. Plenty of retired teachers and widows of police officers were told years ago that their spousal or survivor benefit would be $0, so they never filed. That benefit now exists, but Social Security will not start it on its own. You have to apply.
Back pay is limited. Social Security says the Fairness Act "did not change the provisions of the Social Security Act that govern the retroactivity of benefit applications." For retirement, spouse's, and survivor benefits, retroactive pay is generally limited to six months before the month you file. Disability claims can sometimes go back 12 months. The Congressional Research Service adds two limits that shrink it further:
- Retired workers and spouses who file before full retirement age generally get no retroactive months at all.
- If you file less than six months after reaching full retirement age, back pay only goes back to the month you reached it.
So someone who files in November 2026 is generally paid from about May 2026, not January 2024. Every month you wait is a month you do not get back.
The six-month rule is being disputed. A bipartisan group of senators (Susan Collins, Bill Cassidy, John Cornyn, and John Fetterman) has written to Social Security arguing that new spousal and survivor applicants should be paid back to January 2024. As of late October 2026, Social Security's own page still states the six-month rule, and no law or court ruling has changed it. Do not wait for that fight to end before filing. Filing now locks in your application date either way. If your award notice starts your benefit later than you think is right, you have 60 days to ask for reconsideration on Form SSA-561.
How to apply
| Benefit | How to apply |
|---|
| Your own retirement | Online at ssa.gov/apply, or call 1-800-772-1213 |
| Spouse's benefits | Online at ssa.gov/apply (choose "Family Benefits," which opens the retirement and Medicare application), or by phone |
| Surviving spouse's benefits | Phone only. Call 1-800-772-1213, Monday to Friday, 8:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m. local time |
| Not sure if you ever applied | Call 1-800-772-1213 and ask. If no claim is on file, apply |
Social Security takes phone applications for people who skipped filing because of WEP or GPO. Have ready:
- Your Social Security number and your spouse's (or late spouse's)
- Your marriage certificate, and the divorce decree if you are applying as a divorced spouse
- The death certificate, if applying as a survivor
- Your pension details: the name of the pension system and your monthly amount
- Your bank routing and account numbers for direct deposit
The Rules That Did Not Change
The Act removed two offsets. Every other Social Security rule still applies, and Social Security says so in plain terms.
| Rule | What it means for you |
|---|
| Work credits | You still need 40 credits (about 10 years of covered work) for your own retirement benefit. WEP's repeal does not help someone who never reached 40 |
| Spousal amount | Up to 50% of your spouse's full benefit at your full retirement age, and as little as 32.5% if you claim at 62 (for a full retirement age of 67) |
| Survivor amount | Up to 100% of the late spouse's benefit at full retirement age, reduced if you claim as early as 60 (50 if disabled) |
| Marriage length | Generally 1 year for spouse's benefits, 9 months for survivor's benefits, 10 years for a divorced spouse |
| Early claiming | Benefits taken before full retirement age stay permanently reduced |
| Earnings test | If you are under full retirement age and still working, $1 is withheld for every $2 earned above the limit |
For the spousal math in detail, see Social Security spousal benefits for 2027. For what happens to family members after a death, see survivor benefits after the death of a beneficiary.
Earnings test limits
| 2026 | 2027 (announced, starts January 2027) |
|---|
| Under full retirement age all year | $24,480 a year ($2,040 a month); $1 withheld per $2 over | $25,560 a year ($2,130 a month) |
| Year you reach full retirement age | $65,160 a year ($5,430 a month); $1 withheld per $3 over | $67,920 a year ($5,660 a month) |
| From the month you reach full retirement age | No limit | No limit |
Source: Social Security's 2027 COLA fact sheet, published October 14, 2026.
Medicare Premiums, Taxes, and Other Benefits
Medicare Part B. If you have paid Part B directly to Medicare because your Social Security benefit was zero, keep paying the bill until Social Security sends a notice. Once your benefit starts, the premium ($202.90 a month in 2026) comes out of your check, and any prepaid premiums are refunded. If you use Medicare Easy Pay, you need to stop it yourself with form SF-5510 at medicare.gov. CSRS retirees whose premium came out of their annuity usually get that refund in the back payment.
Taxes. Back pay is reported on your SSA-1099 for the year you received it, even when part of it was owed for an earlier year. The IRS lets you use the lump-sum election in Publication 915, which figures the taxable part as if each year's share had been paid in its own year. That can lower the tax for some people. A bill to exempt Fairness Act back pay from federal income tax (H.R. 7361) was introduced in February 2026 and has not become law.
Other benefits. A bigger Social Security check counts as income for SSI, Medicaid, SNAP, and housing help. For the Marketplace premium tax credit, all of your Social Security counts, including the part that is not taxed. Report the change to each agency so you do not end up with an overpayment notice later.
Scams. Social Security will never ask you to pay to get your benefit started, raised, or paid faster. Hang up on anyone offering that. Report it at ssa.gov/scams.
If You Get SSDI
WEP also applied to disability benefits, so the repeal raised SSDI checks for disabled workers with non-covered pensions. One offset still survives for SSDI: the workers' compensation and public disability benefit offset. We cover that in SSDI and pension income for 2026. This page is about retirement, spouse's, and survivor benefits.
Frequently Asked Questions
When did the Social Security Fairness Act take effect?
It was signed January 5, 2025, and it applies to benefits payable for January 2024 and later. December 2023 was the last month WEP or GPO reduced anyone's benefit.
Are WEP and GPO gone for good?
Yes. The Act repealed both. No reduction applies to any benefit payable for January 2024 or later. They still apply only to months before 2024, which is why Social Security may ask for old pension information.
Did everyone get their Social Security Fairness Act back pay?
People already on benefits mostly did. Social Security finished sending over 3.1 million payments, about $17 billion, on July 7, 2025. Some cases with complex records or wrong contact details took longer. If yours never came, call 1-800-772-1213.
I never applied for spousal or survivor benefits because of GPO. Can I get back pay to January 2024?
Under Social Security's current policy, generally no. A new application is usually paid back no more than six months before the month you file, and less or none if you file before full retirement age. Senators have asked the agency to pay new applicants back to January 2024, but that has not changed as of late October 2026. Apply now so the months you can still get are not lost.
Does the Social Security Fairness Act reduce my pension?
No. The Act changes only your Social Security benefit. It does not change your state, local, or federal pension.
Can I apply for survivor benefits online?
No. Social Security's survivor application is not available online. Call 1-800-772-1213. Spouse's and retirement benefits can be filed online at ssa.gov/apply.
Does every teacher get a raise from the Act?
No. Only teachers with a pension from a job that did not pay Social Security taxes. Most state and local workers, about 72%, pay into Social Security and were never affected.
Is the Fairness Act back payment taxable?
It can be, depending on your total income. It appears on your SSA-1099 for the year you received it. IRS Publication 915 explains the lump-sum election, which can reduce the tax on back pay that belongs to earlier years.
