Public pensions
A pension from work that did not pay into Social Security no longer reduces any Social Security benefit: the worker’s own, a spouse’s or a survivor’s. That holds for benefits payable for January 2024 and later. The pension and Social Security now add together. What still takes planning is timing: when the pension starts, when each spouse claims, and what the pension pays a survivor.
Advisors in Ohio ask about this more than almost anyone, and for good reason. Teachers in STRS Ohio and public employees in OPERS don’t pay into Social Security on those jobs, and many are married to someone who did. This page uses those two systems as the worked examples. The rules are the same for a teacher, firefighter or police officer in any state whose job sat outside Social Security.
It ended the Windfall Elimination Provision (WEP) and the Government Pension Offset (GPO). The Act was signed into law on January 5, 2025. SSA says December 2023 is the last month either rule applies. Benefits payable for January 2024 and later are paid without them.
SSA started paying the new amounts, with back pay to January 2024, on February 25, 2025. By July 7, 2025 it had sent more than 3.1 million payments totaling $17 billion. People already collecting a reduced benefit didn’t need to file anything. SSA asked only that their mailing address and direct deposit be current.
Only people with a pension from work not covered by Social Security, which SSA calls a non-covered pension. SSA puts it plainly: about 72 percent of state and local government workers are in covered jobs, pay Social Security tax, and see no change from the Act. The headlines about teachers, firefighters and police officers hold “in many states,” in SSA’s words, not in all of them.
Ohio is one of the states where it applies broadly. OPERS tells members, “As a member of OPERS you do not pay into Social Security.” STRS Ohio says the same of Ohio public employees generally. Years in those systems earn no Social Security credits and add nothing to the earnings record. A member who also worked in a covered job, before, after or alongside public service, has a Social Security record from that work. A worker needs 40 credits for a retirement benefit on their own record.
WEP used a modified formula that lowered the primary insurance amount (the benefit at full retirement age) for someone with both a Social Security record and a non-covered pension (POMS RS 00605.360). Starting with January 2024, SSA no longer applies it. A retired teacher with 40 credits from summer jobs and work before teaching now gets the benefit those covered earnings produce, on the regular formula.
The repeal adds no credits. Someone with fewer than 40 still has no retirement benefit on their own record, though they may qualify on a spouse’s.
GPO took two-thirds of the non-covered pension off a spouse’s or surviving spouse’s benefit (POMS GN 02608.100). Two-thirds of a full-career pension is often more than the spousal benefit, so the spousal benefit went to zero. POMS calls that a total GPO.
From January 2024, nothing is offset. That brings two benefits back into the household plan:
The survivor benefit is where the repeal changes the claiming conversation most. The higher earner’s claiming age now sets a survivor benefit that the pensioner spouse is paid in full.
Hypothetical household. Joan retired from teaching with an STRS Ohio pension of $4,200 a month. She earned 40 credits from summer jobs and work before teaching, so she has a small Social Security record: a primary insurance amount of $700. Mark spent his career in the private sector, and his primary insurance amount is $3,000. Both have a full retirement age of 67.
Under GPO, two-thirds of Joan’s pension, $2,800 a month, came off any spouse’s or widow’s benefit she was due on Mark’s record. Her $1,500 spousal benefit at 67 was wiped out, and the offset took most of any survivor benefit. WEP also lowered her own $700.
After the repeal, here is what Joan is paid from Social Security each month. Her pension is the same $4,200 in every row.
| Joan’s situation | Own benefit | Spousal or survivor excess | Joan’s Social Security |
|---|---|---|---|
| Claims at 67, before Mark files | $700 | None yet | $700 |
| Claims at 67, Mark has filed | $700 | $800 | $1,500 |
| Claims at 64, Mark has filed | $560 | $600 | $1,160 |
| Widowed at 67 or later; Mark had claimed at 67 | $700 | $2,300 | $3,000 |
| Widowed at 67 or later; Mark had claimed at 70 | $700 | $3,020 | $3,720 |
The spousal excess is half of Mark’s $3,000, less Joan’s own $700. Started at 64, it is cut on the spousal schedule, 25/36 of 1% for each of the 36 months early (20 CFR 404.410). As a widow, Joan is paid the larger of her own benefit and the survivor benefit, not both. SSA pays that as her own $700 plus the difference.
The last two rows are the coordination point. Mark claiming at 70 instead of 67 adds $720 a month to his own check (8% a year in delayed credits, three years). It adds the same $720 a month to Joan’s survivor benefit, for as long as she outlives him. Under GPO the offset took most of that survivor benefit. Now the whole amount reaches Joan, so Mark’s claiming age is a decision about her income as much as his.
These figures were checked with the same functions MySSAgent’s claiming engine uses. They are round numbers and need no rounding; SSA rounds each monthly benefit down to the whole dollar.
The Act removed the offsets and nothing else. SSA’s own page says reductions for claiming early, the earnings test and its other rules still apply. For a household with a public pension, six things work the same as before:
Three choices set a mixed household’s income, and each is made on its own form at its own time.
With GPO gone, the pension’s survivor payment and the full Social Security survivor benefit add together. The survivor’s income is the sum of both. A household weighing a larger single-life pension against a smaller pension with a bigger survivor payment now has a full Social Security survivor benefit on the other side of that choice. The plan’s estimates show the pension side. A claiming analysis shows the Social Security side.
The claiming engine works from each spouse’s Social Security earnings record, and it already applies the repeal: there is no WEP or GPO reduction in it. The years in OPERS or STRS show no Social Security earnings on that record, which is expected. The pension goes in as income beside it.
Each figure goes where it belongs. The year-by-year net income rows start each pension at its owner’s age. The coverage view sets guaranteed income against the household’s expenses, while both are alive and after either death. When the pensioner dies first, the survivor phase carries the survivor’s share beside the Social Security survivor benefit. When the other spouse dies first, the pension keeps paying in full. The taxable part sets the tax and the Medicare premium: the net check (how much of the benefit is taxed, and what Medicare takes, IRMAA included), the IRMAA in each year’s net income row, and the MAGI builder in the IRMAA view.
Two things to know. A pension marked with a cost-of-living raise rises at the same rate as Social Security in the rows. Plans set their own raise, so read that as an estimate and check the plan’s current terms. The pension also doesn’t move the claiming recommendation, which comes from the Social Security records. Its effect shows up in what the household keeps.
No. The Social Security Fairness Act, signed January 5, 2025, ended both. December 2023 was the last month either applied, so benefits payable for January 2024 and later are paid without a WEP reduction or a GPO offset. Sources: SSA, Social Security Fairness Act page; POMS RS 00605.360 and GN 02608.100.
Yes, if they qualify on their spouse's record. The pension no longer offsets either benefit. A spousal benefit can be up to half of the spouse's primary insurance amount, paid as the excess over the teacher's own amount. A survivor benefit runs from 71.5% of the deceased spouse's benefit at 60 up to 100% at the survivor's full retirement age, including any delayed retirement credits the deceased earned. Sources: POMS GN 02608.100; SSA, What you could get from Survivor benefits; 20 CFR 404.313(e).
No. SSA counts only wages and net self-employment profit. It does not count pensions, annuities or other government retirement benefits. Wages from going back to work do count before full retirement age. Source: SSA, Receiving Benefits While Working.
No. The Act changed only how Social Security treats the pension. OPERS told members the Act has no impact on OPERS benefits, and STRS Ohio said the Social Security payment changes are handled by SSA. Sources: OPERS, January 9, 2025; STRS Ohio, February 27, 2025.
SSA encourages it. A person who never applied has to file an application, and the date of the application can affect when benefits start and how much they are. The Act did not change the retroactivity rules: back benefits on a new retirement or survivor application are generally limited to six months before the month of filing. Early-claiming reductions and the earnings test still apply. Source: SSA, Social Security Fairness Act page.
Sources
Educational material, not tax or legal advice. Dollar examples labeled hypothetical are simple arithmetic on the rules above, not figures for any real person. Pension plan rules are summarized from each plan’s own published material; the plan is the authority on its own benefits.
