The Windfall Elimination Provision (WEP) and Government Pension Offset (GPO) were officially repealed by the Social Security Fairness Act, signed into law on January 5, 2025. This legislation eliminates the reduction of Social Security benefits for public servants with non-covered pensions, with changes retroactive to January 2024.
What is the Social Security Fairness Act (Act) and who does it help? The Act was signed into law on January 5, 2025. The Act ends the Windfall Elimination Provision (WEP) and Government Pension Offset (GPO).
On January 5, 2025, President Biden signed the Social Security Fairness Act into law, legislation that will repeal the Windfall Elimination Provision (WEP) and Government Pension Offset (GPO).
On Sunday, President Biden signed the Social Security Fairness Act, which eliminated the Government Pension Offset (GPO) and Windfall Elimination Provision (WEP) rules, which had for 40 years unfairly harmed public service retirees.
The Social Security Fairness Act, HR 82, concerning the Windfall Elimination Program and Government Pension Offset, was signed into law on January 5, 2025. The Act eliminates the reduction of Social Security benefits while entitled to public pensions from work not covered by Social Security.
The Social Security Fairness Act, passed in December, repealed the WEP and GPO, and is retroactive until Jan. 2024. This means the benefits that affected retirees would have received absent the WEP and GPO, are owed to them through Jan. 2024.
Bush financed income tax cuts and the Iraq war by plundering money from Social Security.
The WEP was repealed by the Social Security Fairness Act, signed into law by President Biden on January 5, 2025. The new law is retroactive to benefits paid in 2024, but it is currently unclear how long it will take the Social Security Administration to fully implement its provisions.
The Social Security Administration announced in October that beneficiaries will see a 2.8% increase in their monthly payments, known as the cost-of-living adjustment, or COLA. Individuals receiving Social Security benefits will notice the increase starting in January 2026.
The most recent Trustees Report, released in 2023, projects that the Trust Fund reserves will be depleted in 2034. However, this does not mean that benefits will stop in 2034.
Retirees previously impacted by WEP will see an average monthly benefit increase in social security of $360. Spouses and survivors affected by GPO will receive an average increase in social security of $700–$1,190 per month.
The dollar amount increase to checks will vary depending on a person's benefit amount, but the average Social Security Retirement benefit, $2,008.31 in July 2025, will grow by about $56.
ICYMI: “Congress Approves Full Social Security Benefits for Public Sector Retirees” “The Senate passed bipartisan legislation early Saturday that would give full Social Security benefits to a group of public sector retirees who currently receive them at a reduced level, sending the bill to President Biden.
Over the last decade the cost-of-living adjustment (COLA) increase has averaged about 3.1 percent. The COLA was 2.5 percent in 2025. Nearly 71 million Social Security beneficiaries will see a 2.8 percent COLA beginning in January 2026.
Social Security Fairness Act
We recently announced that we are beginning to pay retroactive benefits and will increase monthly benefit payments to people whose benefits have been affected by the Windfall Elimination Provision (WEP) and Government Pension Offset (GPO).
According to the June 2025 Social Security trustees report, the fund reserves that help pay for Social Security benefits will be depleted in 2033. Benefits won't run out, but retirees would then only be able to receive 77% of their full benefits.
The extra $144 added to Social Security usually comes from the Medicare Part B Giveback benefit, offered by some Medicare Advantage (Part C) plans, which pays back some or all your Part B premium, showing up as extra money in your check if it's deducted from your Social Security. To qualify, you need Original Medicare (Parts A & B), pay your own Part B premium, live in a plan's service area, and enroll in a specific Medicare Advantage plan that offers this "rebate," with the amount varying by plan and location.
Bankrate's Best and Worst States to Retire Study revealed that New Hampshire is the best state for retirees in 2025, followed by Maine (2), Wyoming (3), Vermont (4) and Idaho (5).
These WEP provisions were included in the legislation signed by President Ronald Reagan on April 21, 1983.