Does FERS Reduce Your Social Security Benefits?

No, FERS does not reduce your Social Security benefits. Federal employees covered by the Federal Employees Retirement System pay into Social Security through regular payroll taxes and earn benefits under the same formula as private-sector workers. Two older provisions — the Windfall Elimination Provision (WEP) and the Government Pension Offset (GPO) — once trimmed Social Security checks for certain federal retirees, but both were repealed by the Social Security Fairness Act signed into law on January 5, 2025, with the repeal retroactive to January 2024.¹

Why FERS Wages Count Like Any Other Wages

FERS was designed from the start to work alongside Social Security rather than replace it.² Every FERS paycheck has 6.2 percent withheld for Social Security and 1.45 percent withheld for Medicare, the same rates a private employer would withhold.³ The federal government matches those contributions as your employer.⁴

Because you pay the full Social Security tax, the Social Security Administration treats your federal wages as fully covered earnings. You accumulate credits based on your lifetime earnings history, and your benefit at retirement comes out of the standard formula used for every American worker. Federal payroll offices report your earnings straight to SSA, so your record stays current throughout your career. Nothing about being a FERS employee shrinks the Social Security benefit your work has earned.

What WEP and GPO Were, and Why They No Longer Apply

The worry behind this question usually traces back to WEP and GPO. Both provisions reduced Social Security benefits for retirees who received a pension from work that was not covered by Social Security. That situation almost never applied to a pure FERS career, because FERS work is covered; it primarily affected people with time under the older Civil Service Retirement System (CSRS) or other non-covered public employment.

WEP changed how Social Security calculated the benefit for someone who also drew a pension from non-covered work. Under the standard formula, Social Security replaces 90 percent of the first bracket of your average monthly earnings. Under WEP, that figure could drop as low as 40 percent.⁵ Workers with 30 or more years of substantial Social Security-covered earnings were fully exempt. The maximum monthly reduction in 2024, the last year WEP could have applied, was $587.

GPO worked differently. It applied when you claimed Social Security spousal or survivor benefits on someone else’s record while also receiving your own government pension from non-covered employment. The offset cut the spousal or survivor benefit by two-thirds of your government pension.⁶ A retiree with a $1,500 monthly CSRS pension, for example, would have seen a Social Security spousal benefit reduced by $1,000. When the offset was larger than the spousal benefit, the payment dropped to zero.

Both provisions are gone. December 2023 was the last month WEP or GPO applied to anyone’s benefit. Starting with payments for January 2024, neither provision reduces Social Security checks.¹

Back Payments if You Were Reduced Before

Because the Social Security Fairness Act applies retroactively to benefits payable for January 2024 and later, anyone whose payments were reduced by WEP or GPO during 2024 is owed the difference. SSA has been issuing one-time lump-sum deposits covering that gap, sent to the bank account on file.¹

SSA began adjusting ongoing monthly benefit amounts on February 25, 2025. If your Social Security was previously reduced and you have not seen an adjustment, contact SSA directly. Retirees who were denied spousal or survivor benefits outright because GPO wiped out the payment may now be eligible for the first time and should file.

Don’t Confuse the FERS Annuity Supplement With Social Security

One place FERS retirees do see an earnings-based reduction is the FERS annuity supplement, and it is worth flagging because people sometimes mistake it for a Social Security cut. The supplement is a temporary bridge payment for federal employees who retire before age 62, the earliest age you can claim Social Security retirement. It estimates the portion of your Social Security benefit earned during federal service, and OPM pays that amount monthly until you turn 62.⁷

You qualify if you retire at your minimum retirement age with at least 30 years of service, or at age 60 with at least 20 years of service. The supplement stops on the first day of the month you turn 62, whether or not you actually file for Social Security at that point.

The supplement, unlike your FERS basic annuity, is subject to an earnings test. If your wages or self-employment income exceed the annual exempt amount, the supplement is reduced by $1 for every $2 you earn above the limit.⁷ For 2026, the exempt earnings limit is $24,480.⁸ The test looks at the prior calendar year’s earnings. If you earned $30,000 in outside income during 2025, you exceeded the limit by $5,520, and your supplement would be reduced by $2,760 over the following year.

That reduction hits your OPM supplement, not your Social Security benefit. When you reach 62 and file for Social Security, the benefit SSA pays you is calculated from your full earnings record on the standard formula, untouched by anything that happened to the supplement and no longer touched by WEP or GPO.

1
Social Security Administration. Social Security Fairness Act: Windfall Elimination Provision (WEP) and Government Pension Offset (GPO) Update
2
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 5 USC Chapter 84 – Federal Employees Retirement System
3
Internal Revenue Service. Topic No. 751, Social Security and Medicare Withholding Rates
4
Office of Personnel Management. Federal Employees Retirement System – An Overview of Your Benefits (RI 90-1)
5
eCFR. 20 CFR Part 225 – Primary Insurance Amount Determinations
6
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 42 USC 402 – Old-Age and Survivors Insurance Benefit Payments
7
Office of Personnel Management. Annuity Supplement (RI 90-8)
8
Office of Personnel Management. Annual Changes (Benefits Administration Letter 26-101)