Unless you’ve been boycotting the media for the past six months, you’ve likely heard of recent legislation titled “The Social Security Fairness Act.” This bill, also known as “H.R. 82,” was signed into law by President Biden on January 5, 2025, repealing two long standing Social Security rules called the Windfall Elimination Provision (WEP) and the Government Pension Offset (GPO). Essentially, these rules reduced the Social Security benefit for anyone who also had a separate pension earned without contributing to Social Security. The laws affected many public service employees, including teachers, law enforcement, fire fighters, and other state employees in about 26 U.S. states, as well as some older federal government retirees. The WEP provision also applied to those with retirement pensions from a foreign country and who separately earned U.S. Social Security benefits.
GPO and WEP were enacted separately in 1977 and 1983 respectively, with the GPO rules updated in 1983. Both were essentially designed to eliminate a “windfall” for those collecting Social Security and who also had a “non-covered” government pension – WEP for those also collecting Social Security retirement benefits, and GPO for those entitled to Social Security spousal or surviving spouse benefits. The rationale behind both laws was that the Social Security benefit formula is weighted in favor of lower income workers, and those with a pension earned without contributing to Social Security appeared incorrectly to be lower income workers. Thus, without WEP and GPO, they were receiving higher payments than the Social Security formulae intended. WEP and GPO corrected that inconsistency by reducing the person’s Social Security benefit using formulae which eliminated the “windfall” – also seen as “double-dipping” of Social Security benefits.
The WEP and GPO provisions of Social Security withstood many challenges from inception, from opponents who believed that reducing Social Security Retirement, Spousal and Survivor benefits was unfair to the many public service retirees affected. Bills were introduced in Congress from 1984 on, to repeal or otherwise reduce the impact WEP and/or GPO had on those retirees who also received Social Security. Supporters, however, contended that the WEP and GPO provisions worked as intended to “equalize” the way Social Security benefits were paid to everyone. Up until 2024, supporters of the WEP and GPO provisions prevailed.
During 2024, Congressional hearings were held (largely at the urging of public service unions) to discuss repeal of both WEP and GPO, as proposed in H.R. 82 – The Social Security Fairness Act of 2023. Many in Congress had previously indicated support for this bill (by co-sponsoring it), and political pressure intensified in late 2024, causing the House of Representatives to bring the bill to the House floor for a vote. The bill passed the House vote in November 2024, and subsequently also passed the Senate in December 2024, and was signed into law by President Biden in January 2025. The signing of the bill meant that Social Security suddenly had to redo benefit calculations for nearly 3 million retirees and about 750,000 spouses and surviving spouses, paying additional benefits retroactive to January 2024. This was a sudden and unexpected workload for an already enervated Social Security Administration staff.
Simultaneously, as soon as news of H.R. 82 passage was reported in the media, many Social Security recipients (both those affected and those not) wondered if and when their Social Security benefits might be affected by the new legislation. This further burdened the SSA with inquiring phone calls and, also, caused many who know of the AMAC Foundation’s Social Security Advisory Service to contact us for guidance. Fortunately, our Advisory Service includes two Advisors who retired from the Social Security Administration and had insight into how this additional workload was being handled at SSA. This allowed us to provide informed guidance to those who contacted us. Thus, the AMAC Foundation was able to provide answers about the new legislation while Social Security developed internal processes to cope with the additional workload thrust upon them.
Initially, the SSA asked for patience from those who sought answers, while they coped with the changes imposed by the new legislation. Our AMAC Foundation advisory service initially offered that guidance as well but also explained whether the caller would be affected or not. Fortunately, the SSA was able to quickly develop processes which accelerated the expected change in benefits for those affected, and as of this writing, a majority of affected beneficiaries have been either paid or have received notification of pending payment. Only those affected beneficiaries who require non-automated personal attention by an experienced SSA representative remain yet to be paid, and the SSA has said their efforts will continue throughout this year, predicting that all those affected will have their benefits adjusted by year-end 2025.
The AMAC Foundation’s Social Security Advisory Service stands ready to assist anyone with questions about H.R. 82 – The Social Security Fairness Act, or any other aspect of Social Security (and Medicare enrollment). We can be reached by phone during normal EST business hours at 1.888.750.2622, or via email to SSAdvisor@amacfoundation.org.
with that fairness act I and many more like me worked under the WEP did not receive non-covered annuity pension. I paid into the city of clearwater pension but not social security. I did get 2 lump sum pension payments I worked 14 years but at radom not a continuous 10 years. Social security said to wait because of this situation but I should get something. Is this true?
Hi John,
If you took two lump sum payments, a portion of which included retirement money from the City of Clearwater, then you would have been subject to the Windfall Elimination Provision (WEP) and your Social Security benefits were likely reduced by WEP. However, if you did not claim your lump sum annuity payments when you applied for SS benefits, your monthly SS may not have been reduced. Note that even if you take your City pension as a lump sum, it would have still caused WEP to reduce your SS benefit (unless you simply withdrew only your own contributions to the city retirement program and not city money). In effect, your lump sum pension payments would be prorated to a monthly equivalent based on your life expectancy, and that monthly equivalent amount would have been used when Social Security originally did the WEP reduction formula. So, whether you will benefit from the Social Security Fairness Act depends entirely on the status of those two lump sum withdrawals from the City of Clearwater. If you reported those City pension withdrawal when you later claimed your Social Security benefits, then you will likely get an increase in your SS benefit because the Social Security Fairness Act. If you didn’t tell SS of those withdrawals, then you probably won’t. I would note that because of the complexity of your situation, your case is likely still being evaluated by the Social Security Administration and that will take some time to accomplish. Although many of those affected by the new law have already received an SS benefit adjustment, those needing manual intervention (like yours) will take longer. FYI, the SSA has said they will finish all recalculations before the end of 2025. You can, of course, try contacting the SSA at 1.800.772.1213 to request more information about your case, but I suggest you be patient a while longer. If you do not hear from SSA by August of this year, a call to the agency should provide more definitive information.
Russell Gloor
Certified Social Security Advisor
The AMAC Foundation