OPERS and the Social Security Fairness Act: WEP and GPO Are Repealed

The Offsets Are Gone — Permanently

On January 5, 2025, President Biden signed H.R. 82, the Social Security Fairness Act, into law. It repealed both the Windfall Elimination Provision (WEP) and the Government Pension Offset (GPO) retroactively for benefits payable from January 2024 onward. SSA began paying retroactive adjustments in February 2025, and implementation is complete.

For OPERS members, this is the most significant federal change in a generation. Most non-safety OPERS members don't pay Social Security taxes on their OPERS-covered earnable salary. That meant WEP reduced any Social Security retirement benefit they earned through other covered employment, and GPO reduced or eliminated spousal and survivor benefits. Both reductions are now gone.

What WEP Was Doing

The Windfall Elimination Provision applied a modified formula to Social Security benefits for anyone receiving a pension from non-covered employment (like OPERS). Instead of the standard 90% replacement rate on the first bend point of earnings, WEP could reduce it to as low as 40%. For someone who spent 20 years in OPERS-covered employment and 15 years in Social Security-covered jobs, WEP could cut hundreds of dollars per month from their Social Security check.

Under current law, SSA applies the standard benefit formula without any reduction. The full 90% first-bend-point factor applies regardless of your OPERS pension.

What GPO Was Doing

The Government Pension Offset reduced Social Security spousal and survivor benefits by two-thirds of the government pension amount. For an OPERS retiree receiving $2,400 per month in pension, GPO would have reduced their Social Security spousal benefit by $1,600 — often eliminating it entirely.

Under current law, no offset is applied. If you're entitled to a Social Security spousal or survivor benefit, you receive the full amount as calculated, with no reduction for your OPERS pension.

Who Needs to Act

Already receiving Social Security: SSA applied automatic adjustments starting February 2025 and paid retroactive increases back to January 2024. Check your SSA account (ssa.gov) to confirm the adjustment appeared. If it hasn't, call SSA directly — some complex cases required manual processing.

Receiving OPERS pension but never applied for Social Security: If you skipped filing for Social Security because WEP or GPO would have eliminated the benefit, you now need to file. The adjustment is not automatic for people who never applied — SSA only increases benefits for existing claimants. File a new application at ssa.gov, at your local Social Security office, or by calling 1-800-772-1213.

Not yet retired from either system: When you retire from OPERS and later claim Social Security, the standard formula applies. No special steps needed beyond the normal claiming process. But if you have a spouse who was counting on Social Security survivor benefits, the GPO repeal means that income stream is now real — factor it into your plan-of-payment decision.

The Retroactive Payment

The repeal is retroactive to benefits payable for January 2024. If you were receiving a WEP-reduced Social Security check throughout 2024 and into early 2025, you're owed the difference as a lump sum. SSA processed most retroactive payments by mid-2025. If you haven't received yours, follow up directly with SSA.

The retroactive payment is taxable income in the year you receive it. Plan accordingly — a lump sum covering 12+ months of benefit increases can push you into a higher tax bracket for that year.

Beware Outdated Information

This is critical: the vast majority of OPERS retirement planning resources — official handbooks, union publications, financial advisor websites, online forums — were written when WEP and GPO were active law. If you're reading any source that warns about Social Security reductions due to your government pension, check the publication date. Anything written before January 2025 on this topic is obsolete.

Private financial advisors are some of the worst offenders. Many Ohio-area advisors still have pre-2025 blog posts and seminar materials warning OPERS members that their Social Security benefits will be slashed. That's no longer true, and planning around it can lead you to over-optimize your OPERS pension at the expense of Social Security income you're now fully entitled to.

Coordinating OPERS and Social Security

With WEP and GPO repealed, the plan-of-payment decision becomes more nuanced. A spouse who now receives unreduced Social Security survivor benefits has a different income floor than one who was getting nothing. That changes the calculus on Joint Life vs. Single Life — the survivor protection built into a Joint Life plan may be less critical if Social Security provides substantial independent income.

The OPERS Retirement Guide covers post-repeal Social Security filing steps for all three scenarios — already receiving, never applied, and not yet retired — alongside the plan-of-payment analysis.

See more Ohio guides →