Do you have a pension? Here's how the WEP/GPO Repeal changes your social Security

The Quick Rundown

On January 5th 2025, Biden signed the Social Security Fairness Act into Law which fully repealed the Windfall Elimination Provisions and Government Pension Offset. These were initially created to reduce or eliminate pensions based on work that was not covered by social security because they didnt pay social security taxes.

Due to this repeal, over 3.2million teachers, police officers, firefighters and other public servants are receiving higher monthly social security benefits.

WEP

The Windfall Elimination Provision reduced Social Security retirement or disability benefits for workers who also received a pension from a job that didn't withhold Social Security payroll taxes, commonly state and local government jobs, including many fire and EMS positions, some older federal jobs, and some foreign pensions.

Social Security's benefit formula replaces a higher percentage of a lower-wage worker's prior earnings than a higher-wage worker's earnings. The problem: if someone worked a job that didn't pay into Social Security for most of their career (like most fire departments) but had a few years of Social Security-covered work on the side, the formula would treat them as if they'd been a low-wage earner their whole career even though they weren't. That would inflate their Social Security benefit beyond what it should've been, since the formula didn't "know" about the pension income. WEP was designed to correct for that by reducing the Social Security benefit in those cases.

Individuals saw their benefits being cut significantly even though they earned it.

GPO

The Government Pension Offset targeted spousal and survivior social secuirty benefits.

If someone received a pension from a job that didn't have Social Security taxes and they were also eligible for a Social Security spousal or survivor benefit, GPO reduced that spousal/survivor benefit by 2/3 of the amount of their government pension. So some people had their benefits wiped completely ( the 2/3rds of the pension was more than the entire spousal benefit). If your partner worked a job that wasnt covered by social security and were relying on their partners social security record GPO could have wiped out any benefit due to the pension of the firefighter.

Will every pensionable position receive this benefit?

No. Only those who received a pension NOT covered by social security will see benefit increases. About 72% of most stae and local public employees are working in social security covered employment.

How much will I get if I am eligible?

This will depend on 2 things: your pension amount and your Social Security earnings record. Your benefits will be calculated based on this and will be different per individual.

When will I see the disbursement?

The law is retroactive to January 2024, so the SSA is recalculating your benefits as if WEP/GPO were never applied starting in January 2024. At that point you will get a one time lump sum of the difference between what you received and what you shoud have received. Then from there on out you will receive a newer higher monthly benefit.

If you have not received anything yet, you may still be in the processing stage. You may reach out and contact the SSA directly:

• Online: ssa.gov

• Phone: 1-800-772-1213 (TTY: 1-800-325-0778), business hours are Monday–Friday 8 a.m.–7 p.m.

• In person: SSA office locator

TLDR

 If you've got a firefighter or EMS pension, the two rules that used to shrink (or zero out) your Social Security benefits are gone for good — and you might be owed back pay you don't even know about yet.

	Before (WEP/GPO in effect)	After Jan 5, 2025
WEP	Could cut your own Social Security benefit by as much as ~$587/month	Fully removed — no cut applies
GPO	Could reduce or wipe out a spousal/survivor benefit by two-thirds of your pension amount	Fully removed — no offset applies
When it applies from	Rules had been in place for decades	Law is retroactive back to January 2024