On January 5, 2025, President Joseph Biden signed the Social Security Fairness Act into law. The legislation, approved by overwhelming majorities in the House and Senate during the final months of the 118^th Congress, repeals the Government Public Offset (GPO) and Windfall Elimination Provision (WEP), two rules that have reduced or eliminated Social Security benefits for millions of public-sector workers for decades.

The GPO and WEP were enacted in 1977 and 1983, respectively. The two provisions reduced Social Security benefits to employees who did not pay into Social Security on some or all of their earnings and who receive a pension from that work. The purpose of the rules was to equalize the Social Security benefit formulas for workers and their dependents and survivors, whether those earnings were inside or outside of the Social Security system. But affected state, local and federal public workers decried their lost benefits and had been lobbying to repeal the two provisions ever since they were enacted.

“Finally, Congress showed up for the millions of Americans — police officers, firefighters, teachers, federal employees, and other local and state public servants — who worked a second job to care for their families or began a second career to afford to live,” co-sponsors Rep. Garret Graves (R-LA) and Rep. Abigail Spanberger (D-VA) said in a joint statement released after the Senate approved the legislation 76-20 vote in late December. The House of Representatives approved the bill 327-75 in November.

“Louisianians, Virginians and Americas across the country have for more than four decades implored their representatives in Congress to listen to their stories and protect their retirement security and ability to support their families,” the two representatives said in a joint statement after the Senate vote, which sent the bill to President Biden for his signature. “For years, we have worked alongside these advocates to build overwhelming bipartisan support among our colleagues, urged leadership to give these reforms the consideration impacted Americans deserve, and ultimately force a vote on the U.S. house floor to put an end to this theft.”

Together, the WEP and GPO rules reduce Social Security payments for nearly 3 million retirees. The Social Security Fairness Act repeals the WEP and GPO reductions for Social Security benefits payable starting in January 2024. As a result of the repeal, some public sector retirees could see their Social Security benefits automatically increase in the future and some spouses and survivors, who had been denied Social Security benefits because of their public pensions, could become newly entitled to Social Security benefits.

The Social Security Amendments of 1977 included a Government Pension Offset (GPO) provision that reduced the Social Security spouse’s (or survivor’s) benefit of workers who received a federal, state or local pension based on earning from non-covered government employment. The GPO reduces potential Social Security spousal or survivor benefits by two-thirds of the amount of the government pension. In many cases, the GPO can completely wipe out a Social Security spousal or survivor benefit.

The Social Security Amendments of 1983–the last time Congress approved significant Social Security reforms–included a Windfall Elimination Provision (WEP) that reduced the primary insurance amount for a wage earner who is entitled to Social Security retirement or disability benefit and a pension based in whole or in part on the earnings from employment not covered by Social Security. The WEP can reduce, but not eliminate, a worker’s Social Security benefit by up to half of the amount of the public pension.

The Congressional Budget Office estimates the Social Security Fairness Act would cost about $196 billion over the next 10 years and could accelerate the exhaustion of the Social Security trust funds by several months. The combined Social Security retirement, survivor and disability trust funds are projected to run dry with the next 10 years if Congress does not take action to reform Social Security before then. If the trust funds are exhausted, all Social Security recipients could see their benefits cut by about 20%.

The Social Security Administration issued an emergency message on its website on December 23, 2024, regarding eventual implementation of the WEP and GPO repeal, once the bill is signed into law.

“At this time, the Social Security Administration is evaluating the law and how to implement it. We will provide more information on our website, ssa.gov, as soon as it is available. If you are already entitled, you do not need to take any action at this time except to verify that we have you current mailing address and direct deposit information. If you are receiving a public pension and are now interested in filing for benefits, you may file online at ssa.gov or schedule an appointment.”