WEP Update: Repeal, Retroactive Lump Sum, and GPO Changes

The Windfall Elimination Provision is gone. President Biden signed the Social Security Fairness Act into law on January 5, 2025, and the repeal applies to benefits payable from January 2024 forward.¹ If your Social Security check was being cut because you also draw a pension from work that didn’t pay into Social Security, that reduction has ended. As of July 7, 2025, the Social Security Administration had completed action on roughly 2.8 million existing beneficiary records and sent out more than 3.1 million payments totaling $17 billion in retroactive benefits.²

What the Repeal Changed for Your Monthly Check

The Social Security Fairness Act was enacted as Public Law 118-273.³ It eliminated the WEP, which had reduced retirement and disability benefits based on your own earnings record, and the Government Pension Offset, which reduced or wiped out spousal and survivor benefits. Between them, the two provisions had affected over 2.8 million people.¹

December 2023 was the last month either provision applied. Every benefit payable for January 2024 or later is calculated without the old WEP cut. The size of the resulting increase depends on your situation. Some people see a modest bump; others gain over $1,000 per month.¹

The Retroactive Lump Sum

Because the law treats the change as effective January 2024, anyone who was already receiving reduced benefits before the SSA got around to recalculating is owed the difference for those months. The agency has been depositing these one-time payments directly into the bank accounts it already has on file.¹

The SSA had originally estimated the recalculations could take a year or more. It moved faster than that. The 3.1 million payments and $17 billion in back benefits sent by early July 2025 came out five months ahead of schedule, and your regular monthly deposit should already reflect the higher amount.²

What You Need to Do

If you were already collecting a WEP- or GPO-reduced Social Security benefit, the honest answer for most people is nothing. The SSA processed the increases and back payments automatically. The one useful step is signing in to your my Social Security account at ssa.gov and confirming that your mailing address and direct deposit information are current.¹

The situation is different if you never applied for Social Security in the first place because the WEP or GPO would have zeroed out your benefit. You likely need to file an application now. The date you file matters — it can affect when your benefits begin and how much you get. All the usual Social Security rules still apply, including the reduction for claiming before full retirement age and the retirement earnings test.¹ Filing sooner is generally better, since standard retroactivity rules limit back payments to at most six months before the month you file.

New Claims After the Repeal

Since the law took effect, the SSA has received over 278,000 new claims from people with pensions from non-covered work, and had processed 92% of them as of July 2025.² If you filed a new claim and haven’t heard back, the agency may still be working on it and has asked applicants to allow time before calling to check.

For anyone applying for Social Security for the first time now, the WEP reduction simply does not exist. Your benefit is figured using the standard formula regardless of whether you also draw a government or other non-covered pension. The old questions about “substantial years of coverage” and modified bend-point percentages no longer factor in.

Pension Information Requests

The SSA may still ask you for information about your non-covered pension. WEP and GPO continue to apply to months before January 2024, so the agency sometimes needs pension figures to confirm that earlier payments were correct.¹ If you get a letter asking for pension details, answer it. You do not need to contact the SSA on your own to report pension changes going forward.

Taxes on the Lump Sum

A retroactive lump-sum payment is treated as Social Security income for tax purposes. If yours covered many months of increased benefits, it may push you into a higher bracket for the year you received it. The IRS gives you two choices: report the entire lump sum as income in the year you got it, or use the lump-sum election method described in IRS Publication 915. The election method lets you recalculate your tax as if each portion had arrived in the year it was originally owed, which often produces a lower total bill. The worksheets in Publication 915 walk through the comparison so you can pick whichever method costs less.

Spousal and Survivor Benefits: The GPO Is Gone Too

If your reduction was on a spousal or survivor benefit rather than your own retirement check, that was the Government Pension Offset, not the WEP. The GPO cut spousal and survivor benefits by two-thirds of any pension you received from non-covered government work, a formula that eliminated the spousal benefit entirely for many retired teachers and state employees.⁴ The Social Security Fairness Act repealed the GPO alongside the WEP, with the same January 2024 effective date, and retroactive payments cover the intervening months.¹

If the Numbers Look Wrong

You can appeal a recalculated benefit or a retroactive payment amount you believe is incorrect. The first step is a request for reconsideration, filed online through the SSA’s “Appeal a Decision” page or by submitting Form SSA-561 to your local office. You generally have 60 days from the date you receive the determination notice to file, and the SSA assumes you received it five days after the date on the notice unless you can show otherwise.⁵

If you request reconsideration within 10 days of receiving the notice, your payments continue at the current level while the review is pending. Filing after that 10-day window but within the 60-day deadline still preserves your appeal rights, though your payment may shift temporarily until the agency processes the request. Reconsideration is the first of four possible levels; if it doesn’t resolve the issue, a hearing before an administrative law judge, Appeals Council review, and federal court review follow in that order.

1
Social Security Administration. Social Security Fairness Act: Windfall Elimination Provision and Government Pension Offset Update
2
Social Security Administration. Celebrating Our Recent Social Security Fairness Act Milestone
3
Congress.gov. H.R.82 – 118th Congress (2023-2024): Social Security Fairness Act of 2023
4
Congressional Research Service. Social Security: The Government Pension Offset (GPO)
5
Social Security Administration. Understanding Supplemental Security Income Appeals Process