CalcStack — free, instant, no signup. The interactive calculator loads automatically.
GPO zeroed out your spousal benefit for decades. That ended — retroactive to January 2024.
For forty years, public employees paid a penalty for a second career: the Windfall Elimination Provision cut their own Social Security by up to $643 a month, and the Government Pension Offset erased spousal and survivor benefits entirely for millions — a teacher's widow with a $3,000 pension got $0 of her husband's $2,800 benefit. The Social Security Fairness Act (signed January 5, 2025) repealed both, retroactive to January 2024, and SSA paid out retroactive lump sums in 2025. This calculator shows exactly what each offset was taking from you — the WEP bend-point math on your own benefit, the two-thirds GPO offset on spousal/survivor benefits — and the monthly and annual amounts restored. If your benefit still shows an offset, the number here is what to bring to SSA.
Retired teachers, firefighters, and CSRS feds use it to check SSA's adjustment: WEP's bend-point cut (up to $643/mo) and GPO's two-thirds offset are both gone retroactive to Jan 2024 — and widows who never claimed because GPO zeroed them can finally file.
Yes, for two reasons. First, verify SSA's math: the retroactive lump sums went out fast in 2025 and errors happen — if the restored amount here doesn't match your adjustment, appeal with the computation in hand. Second, survivor planning: spouses who never claimed because GPO would have zeroed the benefit can now file — a survivor benefit that was $0 is now up to 100% of the deceased spouse's amount, and delayed filing rules still apply. Widows and widowers in non-covered pensions are the single biggest group with money still on the table.
Teachers whose districts don't pay into Social Security — that's most of 15 states including Texas, California, Illinois, Ohio, Massachusetts, and Alaska (it varies by district in some states). If your TRS/CalSTRS pension replaced Social Security contributions, you were WEP/GPO territory. The repeal also covers firefighters, police, other state and local workers in non-covered systems, and federal employees under the old CSRS. If your whole career was covered (FICA withheld every check), the offsets never applied and nothing changes.
It accelerates the trust fund depletion date by roughly six months (the offsets were saving the system money by cutting benefits). That's a real policy debate — but it's Congress's problem, not a reason to leave your restored benefits unclaimed. The offsets were always criticized as crude: WEP hit low-income career-changers hardest, and GPO's two-thirds rule bore no relationship to anyone's actual need. File, collect, and let the solvency debate happen separately.