Repeal of WEP GPO and Retroactive Benefits
Repeal of the Government Pension Offset (GPO) and Windfall Elimination Provision (WEP) requires the SSA to recalculate benefits of those affected by those reductions and starting the clock toward retroactive payments dating to January 2024. WEP reduces a Social Security benefit earned through the employee’s own covered employment: as of 2024, by the lessor of $587 a month or 50% of the eligible benefit. WEP is steadily reduced for those with at least 20 years of Social Security-covered earnings and is eliminated for those with 30 or more years. GPO reduces the Social Security 50% spousal benefit or 100% survivor benefit based on a spouse’s covered employment: by $2 for each $3 the beneficiary receives in an annuity from a retirement system not integrated with Social Security. For many, GPO eliminates any benefit available from a spouse. Repeal of GPO now makes them eligible for benefits even without covered employment of their own. The new law requires the recalculation of Social Security benefits to those affected. Retroactive payments have now begun to accrue beginning with January 2024 Social Security payments, and will accumulate until an individual’s benefit has been recalculated. Presumably ongoing benefits will be paid at the higher rates and retroactive payment are to be paid, most likely as lump sums. However, the exact next steps and their timing are uncertain; the SSA has released no projections of how long the recalculation process will take. The CBO projected that most affected beneficiaries will receive their increases during the current fiscal year—meaning before October—but that was an estimate done only for forecasting the effect on the Social Security fund and is not binding. For the meantime, those who did not apply for Social Security spousal or survivor benefits because they would have been eliminated by the GPO should now do so.