Social Security and Public Pensions
The Government Pension Offset (GPO) and the Windfall Elimination Provision (WEP), the federal rules that reduced Social Security benefits for people who also collected a public pension, have been repealed. The Social Security Fairness Act, signed January 5, 2025, ended both, with benefits recalculated from January 2024. You can read more about that at https://www.ssa.gov/benefits/retirement/social-security-fairness-act.html
The Social Security Administration (SSA) completed the back payments in July 2025. If your Social Security benefit had been reduced by GPO or WEP, whether as a worker, a spouse or a survivor, it should now be paid without the reduction.
What this means for you
- If you never applied for Social Security because of GPO or WEP, you may now be eligible. Apply at ssa.gov or at a local SSA office.
- Your Massachusetts pension is unaffected. Those rules only ever reduced the Social Security side. Your monthly allowance from the Eldridge Bay Retirement System is calculated under MGL Chapter 32 and is not changed by federal Social Security law.
- Spouses and survivors who are also entitled to a Social Security spousal or survivor benefit now collect both, without an offset.
Social Security and public service
Most Massachusetts public employees do not pay Social Security tax on their public-employment earnings. The contributions to your Massachusetts retirement system take its place, so your time in Massachusetts public service generally does not earn Social Security credits. Many members do have some Social Security-covered work in their history (private-sector jobs, summer jobs, part-time concurrent work), and SSA computes your federal benefit from that covered work.
To check your covered earnings record, create a my Social Security account. Errors in the record can reduce your federal benefit, and SSA can correct them with documentation.
Common questions
Does my MA pension affect my Social Security spouse's benefit? No. GPO is repealed.
I'm not retired yet. Do I need to know about WEP? No. WEP is repealed. Your future Social Security benefit is calculated under the standard formula based on your covered earnings history.
I have questions about my Social Security calculation. Contact SSA directly at 1-800-772-1213 or visit ssa.gov. The Eldridge Bay Retirement System cannot answer Social Security questions.