Personal Finance & Estate › Social Security › Benefit formula: 40 credits, top 35 years, AIME & PIA
WEP/GPO repeal (Social Security Fairness Act)
Signed Jan 2025· Legal document or tool
Law or rule (2026)Set by statute, regulation or the agency; numbers change yearly.
A January 2025 law that ended two rules cutting Social Security for people who also earn pensions from non-Social-Security jobs.
See it on the Personal Finance & Estate map →How it works
Some teachers, police, firefighters and federal workers hold jobs that pay no Social Security tax; many California teachers in CalSTRS are an example. The Windfall Elimination Provision (WEP) shrank their own benefits, and the Government Pension Offset (GPO) cut spousal and survivor benefits by two-thirds of the pension. The Social Security Fairness Act, signed January 5, 2025, repealed both for benefits from January 2024. SSA paid about $17 billion in back pay to over 3 million people by July 2025.
Why it matters for you
It raised monthly checks for about 2.8 million people, but CBO estimates it costs roughly $196 billion over ten years and nudges the trust-fund date earlier.
Rules, limits and sources (2026)
Public Law 118-273, SSA's implementation updates and the Congressional Budget Office cost estimate. GPO dated from 1977 and WEP from 1983.
Watch out for
Critics of repeal say the old rules prevented real overpayments and favor a proportional replacement formula; whether Congress revisits the issue is uncertain.
Connections (2)
▸WEP/GPO repeal (Social Security Fairness Act) removed pension-based reductions from Benefit formula: 40 credits, top 35 years, AIME & PIALaw or rule (2026)
How they connect
WEP replaced the formula's first 90% tier with as little as 40% for workers with non-covered pensions, and GPO cut their spousal and survivor benefits. Repeal restored the standard formula for them, raising checks by hundreds of dollars a month for many.
When it applies
Signed January 5, 2025, effective for benefits from January 2024; SSA finished most retroactive payments by July 2025.
The rule
Public Law 118-273 and SSA's implementation notices; affected beneficiaries received letters and back-pay deposits.
Watch out for
Some say WEP's crude 40% fix was unfair but repeal overcorrects for short-career workers; a proportional formula was proposed but not adopted.
▸WEP/GPO repeal (Social Security Fairness Act) ended Social Security cuts tied to a non-covered Defined-benefit pensionLaw or rule (2026)
How they connect
Before 2025, a pension from a job that paid no Social Security tax, like many California teachers', triggered WEP and GPO cuts. The repeal means such pensions no longer reduce Social Security checks; pensions from covered jobs, including most private ones, were never affected.
When it applies
Teachers', police and firefighter groups lobbied for decades; Congress passed the repeal in late 2024 with large bipartisan votes.
The rule
SSA's notices to pension recipients and its count of about 2.8 million beneficiaries with higher monthly checks.
Watch out for
Future reform could revisit how non-covered pensions interact with Social Security; how this affects pension payout elections is a planner question.