For forty years, two federal rules cut the Social Security benefits of people who also earned a pension from a job that did not pay into Social Security. The Social Security Fairness Act, signed on January 5, 2025, repealed both. If you are a teacher, police officer, firefighter or other public worker in a non-covered job, your Social Security is now figured exactly like everyone else’s.
The two rules that are gone
The Windfall Elimination Provision (WEP) lowered your own retirement benefit. Social Security’s formula is weighted to help low earners, and WEP was meant to stop people with a public pension from looking like low earners just because their government years did not show on their record. In practice it cut benefits by up to several hundred dollars a month, depending on how many years of substantial covered earnings you had.
The Government Pension Offset (GPO) hit spousal and survivor benefits. It reduced them by two-thirds of your non-covered pension. A retired teacher with a $3,000 pension lost $2,000 a month of any spousal or widow’s benefit, which for most people meant losing it entirely.
Who benefits
The repeal helps anyone with a pension from non-covered work who also qualifies for Social Security on their own record or through a spouse. That includes:
- Teachers in states where most districts do not pay into Social Security, such as California, Texas, Ohio, Illinois and Massachusetts. See states where teachers don’t get Social Security.
- Police officers and firefighters in the many departments that opted out.
- State and city workers in non-covered systems, including Alaska, Colorado, Louisiana, Maine and Nevada.
- Federal workers under the old Civil Service Retirement System.
- Surviving spouses who were denied a widow’s or widower’s benefit because of the GPO.
The Social Security Administration said more than 3 million people saw higher benefits. Spouses and survivors affected by the GPO often gained the most, with some going from nothing to a full survivor benefit.
Retroactive payments
The law applies to benefits payable for months after December 2023. Social Security raised monthly checks and paid retroactive amounts back to January 2024 during 2025. If you were already collecting and never received a retroactive payment, or if you never applied for a spousal or survivor benefit because the GPO would have erased it, contact Social Security. People in the second group must file an application, since the agency cannot pay a benefit no one has claimed.
What it means for planning
Your Social Security and your pension now stack in full. That changes three common decisions.
Whether a few covered years are worth it. Ten years of covered work, or 40 credits, is enough to qualify. Summer jobs, a career before teaching, or a part-time second job can now add a full, unreduced benefit on top of your pension. Our pension and Social Security calculator shows the combined amount.
When to claim. With the full benefit available, waiting from 62 to 70 raises it by about 77%. A steady pension can cover living costs while you wait, which makes delaying more practical for public retirees than for many private workers.
Survivor planning. A spouse who was blocked by the GPO can now count on a survivor benefit. That may change which pension payout option makes sense, since a smaller survivor pension might be enough once Social Security fills part of the gap.
Checking your record
Create or sign in to your my Social Security account at ssa.gov. Your statement lists every year of covered earnings and estimates your benefit at 62, full retirement age and 70, now without any WEP reduction. If a year of covered work is missing, you can ask Social Security to correct it with a W-2 or tax return.