WEP & GPO Repeal Record Comparison
Compare former reduced SSA amounts with the post-repeal amounts in your records
Last reviewed: September 5, 2026
The Social Security Fairness Act eliminated WEP and GPO for benefits payable from January 2024. If you have SSA notices or payment history showing a former reduced amount and a post-repeal amount, enter those records below to compare the monthly difference.
Use the calculator only if your own benefit, or a spousal or survivor benefit, was tied to a pension from work that did not pay Social Security taxes. It compares amounts you supply and does not reconstruct SSA’s award formula; SSA remains the source for your actual payment history and entitlement.
Before you run the numbers, read the Social Security Fairness Act guide for federal employees for the repeal, eligibility, and implementation context behind this calculator.
First: did WEP or GPO ever apply to you?
A regular FERS pension alone generally did not trigger WEP or GPO.
WEP and GPO applied to pensions earned in work not covered by Social Security. Regular FERS employment is Social Security-covered. Transfer, mixed-service, and non-federal pension histories can require record-specific review.
Who was actually affected:
- • CSRS retirees — hired before 1984, did not pay Social Security taxes on federal earnings
- • Some CSRS Offset employees and CSRS-to-FERS transferees — historical exposure depends on the covered and non-covered service in the individual record
- • Spouses, widows and widowers of CSRS retirees — GPO reduced spousal and survivor benefits
- • Outside federal service: teachers, police, firefighters and other state and local employees in non-covered systems
If you have only a regular FERS pension, it generally did not trigger WEP or GPO. If you have CSRS, mixed, or other non-covered service—or a spouse or survivor benefit—compare the amounts shown in your SSA records below.
Compare an own-record WEP change
Use amounts from SSA notices or payment history. This tool does not recreate SSA’s benefit formula.
Compare a spouse or survivor GPO change
This flow is independent. You do not need an own-record worker benefit to use it.
These are arithmetic comparisons of amounts you enter, not entitlement calculations. Only SSA can determine your official adjustment, past-due amount, filing effective date, or whether another benefit rule applies.
What the law did
The Social Security Fairness Act of 2023 — H.R. 82, enacted as Public Law 118-273 — was signed on 5 January 2025. It repealed both provisions outright by striking them from the Social Security Act.
The effective date is the part most sources get wrong. The repeal applies to benefits payable for months after December 2023. So:
- December 2023 was the last month WEP and GPO applied.
- Benefits payable from January 2024 forward are unaffected.
It is not “effective January 2025,” despite being signed then. The statute reached twelve months backwards.
What each provision did
WEP reduced your own Social Security retirement benefit. It altered the benefit formula’s first factor — normally 90% of the first tranche of your average indexed earnings — down to as little as 40%, on a sliding scale based on your years of substantial Social Security-covered earnings. Thirty or more years of substantial earnings meant no reduction at all. A separate guarantee capped the reduction at half of the portion of your pension attributable to non-covered work.
GPO reduced your spousal or survivor benefit by two-thirds of your own non-covered government pension. A $3,000 monthly pension reduced a spousal benefit by $2,000 — frequently to zero. About 70% of people subject to GPO had the benefit eliminated entirely. Both are gone. There is no residual WEP and no residual GPO.
If you never applied, you don’t get back to January 2024
This catches people, and it is worth reading carefully.
SSA automatically adjusted many records for people already receiving affected benefits. If you never filed because you expected GPO to eliminate the benefit, or your record still appears wrong, contact SSA. Filing and retroactivity depend on the individual claim.
If you never applied for Social Security at all — because you were told GPO or WEP would wipe out your benefit, so there seemed no point — you are in a different situation. You have to file now, and standard retroactivity rules cap you at six months before the month you file. Not back to January 2024.
If you filed after repeal or SSA changed your record manually, the payable period can differ from another beneficiary’s. Use the months shown in your own SSA payment history rather than assuming every affected person was paid back to the same date.
Every month you wait costs you a month. If you are the spouse or survivor of a CSRS retiree and never filed because GPO made it pointless, file now.
Two smaller groups also need to act: anyone unsure whether they ever filed, and anyone paying Medicare premiums by automatic bank payment or Medicare Easy Pay. Those premiums now come out of the restored benefit, so the automatic payment needs stopping.
What did not change
WEP and GPO are gone. Several other things that get confused with them are not.
The CSRS Offset annuity reduction still applies. This is not WEP or GPO and was never part of the repeal. At 62, OPM reduces a CSRS Offset annuity based on the Social Security benefit attributable to the offset service. It is a reduction to your federal annuity, applied by OPM — a completely separate mechanism from anything SSA does. If your CSRS Offset annuity drops at 62, this is why, and the Fairness Act does not touch it.
The Social Security earnings test still applies if you claim before full retirement age and keep working. For 2026: $1 withheld for every $2 earned above $24,480, or $1 for every $3 above $65,160 in the year you reach full retirement age. The test disappears once you reach FRA.
Benefits are still taxable. Up to 85% of your Social Security may be included in taxable income depending on combined income.
Early claiming still reduces your benefit actuarially, exactly as before. The repeal removes WEP and GPO reductions; it does not change the ordinary claiming-age rules.
About that lump sum and your taxes
A large retroactive payment lands in the year you receive it, which can push more of your Social Security into the taxable range for that single year.
The IRS allows a lump-sum election: you can figure the taxable portion attributable to an earlier year using that earlier year’s income instead, which often produces a lower result. It is elected by checking a box on your Form 1040, and the worksheets are in IRS Publication 915.
There is no WEP- or GPO-specific IRS guidance — this is the ordinary lump-sum election, applied to an unusual situation. It is worth raising with whoever prepares your return.
Frequently Asked Questions
Did WEP or GPO apply to FERS retirees?
No. WEP and GPO applied to pensions from work not covered by Social Security. FERS is Social Security-covered, and SSA's policy manual specifically excludes federal pensions for employees first hired on or after 1 January 1984. They applied to CSRS, CSRS Offset, and the spouses and survivors of CSRS retirees.
When did the repeal take effect?
For benefits payable for months after December 2023. December 2023 was the last month either provision applied. The law was signed 5 January 2025 but reached twelve months backwards.
Do I need to apply to get my benefit restored?
SSA automatically adjusted many records for people already receiving affected benefits. If you never applied because WEP or GPO was expected to reduce the payment, or your record still appears wrong, contact SSA. Filing and retroactivity depend on the individual claim.
What was the Windfall Elimination Provision?
It reduced your own Social Security retirement benefit by lowering the first factor in the benefit formula from 90% to as little as 40%, on a scale based on your years of substantial covered earnings. Thirty or more years meant no reduction.
What was the Government Pension Offset?
It reduced spousal and survivor Social Security benefits by two-thirds of your own non-covered government pension, frequently eliminating them entirely.
Does the CSRS Offset reduction still apply?
Yes. That is a separate reduction OPM applies to your CSRS Offset annuity at age 62, and it was not part of the repeal. It is commonly confused with WEP and GPO but is a different mechanism entirely.
Is the retroactive payment taxable?
It is treated as Social Security income in the year received. The IRS lump-sum election lets you calculate the taxable portion attributable to an earlier year using that year's income, which often lowers the result. See IRS Publication 915.
Has SSA finished processing everyone?
SSA reported over 3.1 million payments totaling more than $17 billion as of July 2025, five months ahead of schedule, and repeated that figure in January 2026. It has not published a formal completion declaration or a more recent count.
Primary sources
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This calculator provides estimates for educational purposes only. Actual benefit amounts are determined by SSA based on your complete earnings record. Consult SSA or a qualified advisor before making financial decisions.