WEP and GPO repealed: your Social Security and your PR pension

The two rules are no longer in the Code

For decades, two federal rules cut the Social Security of people drawing a pension from work that **did not contribute** to Social Security. In Puerto Rico that hit many public servants directly, starting with teachers, who under a 1952 coverage limitation **do not contribute to Social Security**.

Those two rules were called the **Windfall Elimination Provision (WEP)** and the **Government Pension Offset (GPO)**. They no longer exist in the United States Code.

**Public Law 118-273, of January 5, 2025, 138 Stat. 3232**, did the following, and the Code itself records it:

A note on method, because it matters for trusting what you read here: **the repealed text is no longer in the Code**, so we cannot quote you how those two rules were worded. What we can quote (and this is what you are reading) is **how the Code itself describes what they did** in its amendment notes, and which sections they lived in. We are not going to reconstruct from memory a formula that can no longer be read at the source.

• **Section 2(a)** of that Act **struck paragraph (5) of subsection (k) of 42 U.S.C. § 402**, the paragraph that, in the Code's own words, «**reduced Social Security benefits pursuant to the Government Pension Offset provision**».
• **Section 3(a)(1)** **struck paragraph (7) of subsection (a) of 42 U.S.C. § 415**, the one that «**reduced Social Security benefits pursuant to the Windfall Elimination Provision**».
• **Sections 3(a)(2) and 3(a)(3)** also struck **§ 415(d)(3)** and **§ 415(f)(9)**, the computation pieces that depended on the former.
• **Sections 2(b) and 3(b)** made the conforming amendments: they removed the cross-references to those paragraphs throughout § 402 and § 415.

From when it applies: January 2024, not January 2025

This is the most confused fact. The Act was signed on **January 5, 2025**, but it **does not run from that date**.

**Section 4** of Act 118-273 itself says it in these words: the amendments **«shall apply with respect to monthly insurance benefits payable under title II of the Social Security Act for months after December 2023»**.

That is: **from January 2024**. It is retroactive a full year before the signing.

And that same Section 4 adds an obligation worth knowing because it belongs to the agency, not to you: **«notwithstanding section 215(f) of the Social Security Act, the Commissioner of Social Security shall adjust primary insurance amounts to the extent necessary to take into account the amendments made by section 3»**. The statute orders the Commissioner to adjust the computations.

Which was which, by where each lived in the statute

Since the repealed text can no longer be read, the honest way to tell them apart is by **the section each lived in** and by **which subsections had to be corrected** when they were struck. That is in the Code.

**WEP lived in § 415**, the section titled **«computation of primary insurance amount»**. That is, it affected **the calculation of your own benefit**. When Act 118-273 struck it, it also had to strike § 415(d)(3) and § 415(f)(9), which were computation and recomputation rules tied to it.

**GPO lived in § 402(k)(5)**, and § 402 is the section on **spouse's, widow's and widower's** benefits. And here is the cleanest proof of whom it affected: on striking it, Section 2(b) had to go correct the cross-references precisely in these subsections:

Those four subsections are, in that order, the **wife's**, the **husband's**, the **widow's** and the **widower's**. GPO was the rule that cut **the benefit you were owed through your spouse**, not the one owed for your own work.

• **§ 402(b)(2)**, «subsections (k)(5) and (q)» was replaced with «subsection (q)».
• **§ 402(c)(2)**, the same change.
• **§ 402(e)(2)(A)**, «subsection (k)(5), subsection (q),» was replaced with «subsection (q)».
• **§ 402(f)(2)(A)**, the same change.

Why this weighs so much in Puerto Rico

Because here there is a large group of public employees with a pension from work that **did not contribute** to Social Security.

The clearest case is teachers. **Act 160-2013**, the current statute of the Teachers' Retirement System, explains in its own statement of motives that when Social Security coverage was extended to Central Government employees on **July 1, 1952**, **that coverage was limited to employees not already covered by a retirement system**. Since the Teachers' Retirement System had covered them since at least 1917, they **were left out**. The result, in the statute's words: **teachers do not contribute to Social Security**.

That is exactly the profile WEP and GPO penalized: someone with a pension from non-covered work who also had covered work elsewhere in their life, or who was entitled to a benefit through their spouse. With both rules out of the Code since January 2024, that cut is no longer in the law.

Our teachers' retirement guide explains that 1952 limitation with the full source, and also the mandate Act 160-2013 gave the System to arrange for teachers entering from August 1, 2014 **to contribute**. If it matters to you whether you are contributing, that must be confirmed, not assumed.

What this does not do

It is worth stating plainly so nobody builds an expectation the statute does not support.

**It does not make you eligible.** Repealing a rule that **reduced** a benefit does not create the benefit. To be entitled to a Social Security old-age benefit you still need to meet the insured status of **42 U.S.C. § 414**, earned through **quarters of coverage**. If you never had covered work, there was nothing being reduced and there is still nothing to collect by that route.

**It does not change your Puerto Rico pension.** WEP and GPO were federal Social Security rules. What you collect from whichever Retirement System applies to you is governed by Puerto Rico law and this Act did not touch it.

**It does not replace an official computation.** How much your benefit rises, if it rises, depends on your full record. This guide tells you what the statute says; the number comes from Social Security.

What we did not verify, and why we do not publish it

Everything above comes from the **text of the United States Code** at `uscode.house.gov`, which is a primary and reachable source. What follows we could **not** verify, and that is why you will not find it here:

**The process before Social Security.** `ssa.gov` returned **403** from our side when we tried to consult it for this guide, so we publish no forms, administrative deadlines, phone numbers or claim instructions. What is in the statute is that Section 4 orders the **Commissioner to adjust primary insurance amounts**; the operational how and when must be confirmed with the agency.

**What happens if you never applied.** Many people never filed for a spouse's or widow's benefit because GPO was going to wipe it out. Section 4 speaks of **benefits payable** and of adjusting computations; it **says nothing** about an application that was never filed. That scenario has to be asked of Social Security directly, and it is worth doing soon rather than later.

**How much it goes up.** There is no general figure. Any number circulating as «what you are owed» does not come from this statute.