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.
A Bit of History
GPO and WEP were enacted in 1977 and 1983, respectively, with the GPO rules updated in 1983. Both were 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. 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” in Social Security benefits.
The WEP and GPO provisions of Social Security withstood many challenges from their 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.
The Repeal of WEP and GPO
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, subsequently 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 three 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.
The Public Reacts
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. 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 [email protected].
OMG!!!!! I didn’t KNOW we ALREADY HAD ‘GPO’ and ‘WEP’ in PLACE, OBVIOUSLY NEEDED for ‘FAIRNESS’ to prevail!!! I had posited THAT VERY THING as being a ‘correction’ to SS to save it! It FIGURES that the STUPID ?(BO)/Biden regime WOULD MAKE THIS CHANGE IN THE LAW to dispose of Reagan’s ‘GPO’ and ‘WEP’ for their Dem constituents in their Deep State!!! What a CRIMINAL ACT against this NATION!!! especially just at the same time that we are being told that SS is ready to collapse!!! and NO ONE will have it anymore!!! And that ‘congress’ (@#$%) SHOULD have been engaged in trying to SAVE SS, not burden it even FURTHER (and also with giving it to Illegals!!!). If that last Admin wasn’t deliberately TRYING TO DESTROY the USA, I don’t know what MORE they could have done!!! to achieve that goal!
It was so unfair to teachers. Teachers in Texas have historically been lower paid than most. I had to work two jobs to make ends meet. I got my 40 quarters paid into SS. Then because of WEP, when I retired, the government took 2/3’s of what I really earned with SS outside of teaching. I fully understand if I had not worked extra jobs to make ends meet. It was WRONG to punish all teachers if they actually earned SS.
All I know is that President Trump promised that social security income would be income tax exempt and this “big beautiful bill” reneged.
Social Security is just a tax. It is not meant to be fair. For example, take the amount you paid each year in fica taxes and accumulated it in an account invested in nothing but bank cds, and then, at retirement age, take the amount of money you have accumulated and buy an annuity, from an insurance company. You will find that the annuity is at least twice as large as what you receive form SSA.
I am one of the social security recipients who has a pension from a system that was separate from the federal program. My income for 28 years of working for the state of Alaska which dropped out and formed its own savings and investment for retirement was much higher than my husband’s whose long work history also pays him a modest social security retirement payment.
I applied for what the law states is “up to half” of his as his wife. I have what SSA has decided is up to half” which is now added to what I already received for many years of work before State of Alaska dropped out. The added payment (added to what I was paid for the many years before) is a fraction of half of his. My conclusion is that this system is carefully trimmed so that no American citizen will have a retirement payment sufficient to live alone if he relies on his government pension and savings.
This means we all have to form some kind of partnership.
This bill should have never been passed. Those that have a large government pension don’t deserve an increase in their SS benefits. And now these same democrats took no tax on SS off the Beautiful Bill. It was seen as helping the rich I suppose. Like this bill that the Autopen signed into law was wrecking SS forever. A plan that the dems could get behind. They need people to be beholden to the govt for their existence. They can’t have independent thinkers.
There are a lot of folks out here living on SS only once they retire! I’m surprised cuz I was always taught to save in other programs what you could since SS won’t be enough to live on. My parents did that and so did I. It wasn’t much but over time between both I can live comfortably not rich but comfortable. Isn’t that how retirement was supposed to be?
why did we only receive our social security benefit for one year? My social security benefits was reduced for17 years. will i receive payment for those years lost. i believe the government violated both the 4th and 14th amendments when wep was passed in1977. please reply or put in amac magazine. thank you
This question of fairness has valid point!