The Social Security Fairness Act ended WEP and GPO for benefits payable from January 2024. What changed, who gains, what SSA has already paid, and why a bigger benefit is still taxable somewhere.
The Windfall Elimination Provision no longer exists. The Social Security Fairness Act, signed on 5 January 2025, ended both WEP and the Government Pension Offset for benefits payable for January 2024 and later, so a UK State Pension or a UK workplace pension from non-covered employment no longer reduces your US Social Security. The Social Security Administration has already added the money back to monthly payments and sent one-off arrears covering the gap to January 2024, and for most people already drawing benefits no action was needed.
Dates and rules below were verified against SSA.gov, SSA's Program Operations Manual and the treaty text on 4 October 2026. SSA's Fairness Act page was last updated on 21 July 2025.
Social Security benefits are based on the monthly average of a worker's lifetime covered earnings. SSA splits that average into portions and multiplies the first by 90 per cent, the second by 32 per cent and the remainder by 15 per cent. WEP left the 32 and 15 per cent steps alone. For workers reaching 62 or becoming disabled in 1990 or later, it replaced only the 90 per cent factor with a factor between 85 and 40 per cent, depending on how many years of "substantial earnings" — years of coverage — the worker had. Thirty years of coverage exempted you entirely.
A second rule, the WEP guarantee, limited the damage: it capped the reduction at no more than one-half of the part of the pension attributable to post-1956 non-covered earnings, measured in the first month of concurrent entitlement, and SSA applied whichever reduction was smaller.
WEP was never a penalty aimed at foreign pensions. It adjusted a formula weighted towards low lifetime US earners, on the theory that someone with a short US record and a substantial pension elsewhere was not really a low earner. The side effect caught anyone with a split career.
SSA's definition was broad: a foreign pension was any periodic or lump-sum payment made by a private employer, a government employer, a social insurance system or the government of a foreign country. For months up to December 2023, a pension from a country with a totalisation agreement — the UK has one — triggered WEP where the person received non-totalised benefits from both countries. In plain terms: you drew a US benefit on your own US record and a UK pension on your own UK record.
Four carve-outs mattered then, and still matter for any month before January 2024:
The Government Pension Offset reduced a spouse's or surviving spouse's Social Security benefit by two-thirds of the non-covered government pension where the pension eligibility date was July 1983 or later. SSA's manual is explicit that foreign pensions are not pensions for GPO purposes, and that "government" means federal, state or local US government. A UK pension did not cause GPO. An American with part of a career in US non-covered public service and part in Britain could, though, be hit by both rules at once.
One sentence from SSA's manual carries the whole reform: beginning with benefits due for January 2024, paid in February 2024, SSA no longer reduces benefits based on receipt of pensions from work not covered by Social Security. SSA has retired its old WEP planner page and replaced it with one headed "Pensions and work abroad won't reduce benefits".
Implementation ran faster than first forecast:
SSA says the provisions had reduced or eliminated the benefits of over 2.8 million people, and lists "people whose work had been covered by a foreign social security system" alongside teachers, firefighters and Civil Service Retirement System employees among those the law helps. Note what it does not do: months up to December 2023 are not reopened, and SSA may still ask for pension figures to confirm it paid them correctly.
| Situation | Months up to December 2023 | Benefits payable January 2024 onwards |
| --- | --- | --- |
| US record plus UK State Pension from your own National Insurance | WEP applied: 90 per cent factor cut to as low as 40 per cent, capped at half the pension | No reduction |
| US record plus a UK workplace pension from UK employment | WEP applied so far as the pension rested on non-covered post-1956 work | No reduction |
| UK State Pension built only from voluntary Class 2 or Class 3 | Already outside WEP — voluntary contributions did not trigger it | No reduction |
| UK pension payable only because US credits were counted under the agreement | Did not trigger WEP | No reduction |
| 30 or more years of substantial US covered earnings | Already exempt | No reduction; the exemption is redundant |
| Spouse's or survivor's US benefit plus a UK pension | GPO did not apply — foreign pensions excluded | Unchanged |
| Spouse's or survivor's US benefit plus a US government non-covered pension | GPO cut it by two-thirds of the pension | No offset |
| Never applied because WEP or GPO made a claim look pointless | Nothing in payment, so nothing to remove | You must file; ordinary retroactivity applies |
| Any month before January 2024 | WEP and GPO stand | Not reopened |
Illustrative arithmetic from published figures, not a prediction about any individual. GOV.UK puts the full rate of the new State Pension at £241.30 a week in 2026-27, roughly £1,045 a month. Under the WEP guarantee the reduction could never exceed half of the part of that pension attributable to post-1956 non-covered work, measured in the first month of concurrent entitlement and converted to dollars — a ceiling of about £522 a month in those terms, with the actual cut being whichever was smaller, that capped figure or the modified-formula figure. From January 2024 the reduction is nil.
Your own increase depends on your earnings record, years of coverage and pension history. SSA says the change varies greatly: some benefits rise very little, while others may be eligible for over $1,000 more a month. Nobody can promise you a number.
1. Check whether your benefit has been adjusted. Sign in to your my Social Security account at ssa.gov and compare your current monthly amount with what you were paid in 2023. Expect up to two letters; the money may land before either.
2. If you never applied, apply. Retirement and spouse's claims can be filed online at ssa.gov/apply, and SSA will also take them by telephone from people who did not previously apply because of WEP or GPO. Survivor's claims are not available online and must be made by phone.
3. Mind the retroactivity limit. The Act did not change how far back an application can reach — generally six months before the month of filing for retirement and survivor's benefits, with up to 12 months for some disability claims. Delay costs money.
4. Confirm SSA has your current address and direct deposit details. That is what gets both the arrears and the new monthly amount to you quickly.
5. If you think you were missed — you held a non-covered pension but have had neither an adjustment nor a notice — check your account, then contact SSA on 1-800-772-1213. Where the beneficiary has died, SSA points to form SSA-1724-F4 to claim amounts due.
6. Sort out the Medicare plumbing if premiums were paid directly, by Easy Pay or from a CSRS or OPM annuity; they generally move to deduction from the benefit.
7. Ignore anyone offering to speed it up for a fee. SSA never asks for payment to start, increase or expedite benefits.
Under US domestic law, up to 85 per cent of Social Security benefits can be taxable: IRS Publication 915 sets base amounts of $25,000 for single filers and $32,000 for joint filers, with the higher tier engaged above $34,000 and $44,000.
For a UK resident, none of that is the operative rule. Article 17(3) of the US-UK treaty provides that payments made by one country under its social security legislation to a resident of the other "shall be taxable only in that other State". Crucially, Article 1(5)(a) lists paragraph 3 of Article 17 among the provisions the saving clause in Article 1(4) does not override — so the United States cannot tax the benefit even where the recipient is a US citizen living in Britain. Publication 915 reaches the same answer from the other direction, naming the United Kingdom among the countries whose residents are exempt from US tax on their benefits.
The benefit therefore belongs on the UK side, and GOV.UK puts the general rule simply: if you are UK resident, you will normally pay tax on your foreign income. Three consequences follow:
Our separate guides cover the mechanics: how US Social Security is taxed for a UK resident, and how the treaty prevents double tax on income.
The repeal removed a benefit-reduction rule. It left the US-UK social security agreement intact, and that agreement still does the two jobs people need from it.
First, it stops double contributions. Self-employed workers resident in the United States are assigned US coverage; those resident in the United Kingdom, UK coverage. Exemption from US contributions is established with a certificate of coverage, applied for through HMRC, which SSA tells US employers to retain in case of IRS audit rather than file.
Second, it lets credits be combined so that you can qualify. To have UK credits counted towards a US benefit you need at least six US credits, roughly a year and a half of work — and if you already qualify under US rules alone, UK credits cannot be counted at all. Running the other way, US credits can count towards the UK basic pension provided you have at least one year of UK coverage, though not towards the additional pension.
Which country you should be contributing to in the first place is a separate question, covered in our guide to US and UK social security and National Insurance.
For anyone still accruing, the repeal changes the arithmetic of a decision many expatriates face annually. Before 2024, building UK pension entitlement carried a hidden cost: the resulting non-covered pension reduced the US benefit. That drag is gone, so a UK qualifying year now adds UK pension without clawing anything back.
Two cautions. The drag was never there for voluntary contributions, which SSA's manual excluded — so if your UK record was built by paying Class 2 or Class 3 from abroad, the repeal changes nothing on that axis. And the 30-years-of-coverage exemption no longer needs to influence whether you stay in US-covered employment.
UK targets are unchanged: GOV.UK states you need 10 qualifying years for any new State Pension and 35 for the full rate where your record began after April 2016. Whether buying years is worth it depends on your forecast — see voluntary National Insurance from abroad.
Most people affected by the repeal needed to do nothing, and paying for advice to confirm that would be a waste. The cases that reward a second pair of eyes are narrower: you never filed a claim because WEP or GPO made one look pointless and the retroactivity clock is now running; arrears have landed and you are unsure which UK tax year they belong in; or you report both a US benefit and a UK pension and want the treaty positions taken consistently on both returns rather than guessed at twice.
Our tax specialists for US and UK filers work both sides on one file: a licensed CPA or Enrolled Agent signs off the US return and an ACCA-qualified accountant the UK one. Fixed fees are on our pricing page, or book a consultation and talk the position through first.
General information on how the repeal and the treaty interact, not advice on your circumstances.