Social Security Fairness Act and Divorce Benefits

The GPO and WEP Are Gone

The Social Security Fairness Act (H.R. 82), signed into law on January 5, 2025, repealed two provisions that had reduced or eliminated Social Security benefits for millions of public-sector workers and their former spouses:

The Windfall Elimination Provision (WEP) reduced individual Social Security retirement benefits for workers who also received a pension from employment not covered by Social Security — teachers, police officers, firefighters, and state and municipal employees in states without Social Security coverage.

The Government Pension Offset (GPO) reduced or zeroed out Social Security spousal and survivor benefits for people receiving a pension from employment not covered by Social Security. For divorced spouses, this was devastating: even if your marriage lasted 10+ years and you qualified for divorced-spouse benefits, the GPO could reduce that benefit to nothing if you received a public pension from employment not covered by Social Security.

Both provisions are now repealed for all benefits payable from January 2024 forward. The SSA completed retroactive adjustments in February 2025.

What This Means for Divorced Public Employees

The impact splits into two groups:

If you were already receiving reduced benefits: The SSA should have automatically adjusted your monthly payment to the full, unreduced amount and issued retroactive payments back to January 2024. Check your my Social Security account at ssa.gov to verify the adjustment. If your benefit amount still reflects the old WEP or GPO reduction, contact the SSA immediately.

If you never applied because the offsets would have zeroed your benefit: This is the critical group. The SSA does not automatically enroll people who never filed a claim. If you are a divorced spouse who meets the eligibility requirements — your marriage lasted at least 10 years, you are age 62 or older, and you are currently unmarried — you must submit a formal application.

For divorced-spouse benefits, use Form SSA-2. For divorced-survivor benefits (if your ex-spouse has died), use Form SSA-10.

The Six-Month Retroactivity Limit

Federal law limits retroactive payments for new applicants to a maximum of six months before the application date. The repeal was effective January 2024, but if you do not apply until August 2026, your retroactive payments only go back to February 2026 — not to January 2024.

Every month you wait costs you money that cannot be recovered. If you are eligible and have not yet applied, the most valuable step you can take today is filing that application.

If the SSA denies retroactivity back to the statutory repeal date, file Form SSA-561 (Request for Reconsideration) immediately.

Divorced-Spouse Benefit Eligibility

To receive Social Security benefits based on your former spouse's work record, you must meet all of these:

• Your marriage lasted at least 10 years
• You are at least 62 years old
• You are currently unmarried (or remarried after age 60 for survivor benefits)
• Your own Social Security benefit is less than what you would receive on your former spouse's record
• Your former spouse is entitled to or receiving Social Security benefits (or, for survivor benefits, has died)

You do not need your former spouse's permission, and your benefit claim does not reduce their payment.

State Pension Plan Offsets Still Exist

The federal repeal of GPO and WEP eliminates the Social Security-level reductions. But individual state pension systems may have their own plan-level offset provisions. For example, Illinois SERS has a coordinated-member offset that adjusts pension payouts based on Social Security eligibility. Indiana's INPRS does not apply the same type of automatic offset, but plan-specific rules vary.

Verify your own state pension plan's rules independently. A call to INPRS, PERF, or TRF will confirm whether any plan-level adjustments interact with your Social Security benefit.

Taking Action Now

If you are going through a divorce in Indiana and either spouse holds a public pension, the Social Security Fairness Act changes the financial picture significantly. Benefits that were previously worthless under the GPO or WEP now have real monthly value.

The Indiana After-Divorce Checklist includes the SSA application steps for both current beneficiaries and never-applicants, along with a timeline for verifying retroactive adjustments and filing reconsideration if the adjustment is incomplete.

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