Government Pension Offset

A law that affects spouses and surviving a spouse’s or surviving spouse’s benefit to be offset
by the dollar amount of the recipient’s own retirement
spouses benefit.
If you receive a retirement or disability pension from
For example, let’s say someone worked and earned
a federal, state, or local government based on your
their own $800 monthly Social Security benefit,
own work for which you didn’t pay Social Security
but was also due a $500 spouse’s benefit on their
taxes, your Social Security benefits may be reduced.
spouse’s record. We couldn’t pay that spouse’s
You may not receive any payment at all. This fact
benefit because their own benefit offsets it. Before
sheet answers questions you may have about the
enactment of the Government Pension Offset (GPO)
reduction. For more information visit See how your
law, if that person was a government employee
pension may affect your benefits | SSA.
who didn’t pay into Social Security and earned an
*Public Law 98-21, Social Security Amendments of $800 government pension, there was no offset. We
1983, approved April 20, 1983. had to pay them a full spouse’s benefit and their full
government pension.
How much will my Social Security benefits If their government work had been subject to Social
be reduced? Security taxes, we would have reduced any spouse’s
We’ll reduce your Social Security benefits by two- or surviving spouse’s benefit because of their
thirds of your government pension. For example, if own Social Security retirement benefit. The GPO
you get a monthly civil service pension of $3,000, ensures that we calculate the benefits of government
two-thirds of that, or $2,000, must be deducted from employees who don’t pay Social Security taxes the
your Social Security benefits. So, if you’re eligible same as workers in the private sector who pay Social
for a $2,100 spouse’s or surviving spouse’s benefit Security taxes.
from Social Security, you’ll get $100 a month ($2,100
– $2,000 = $100). If two-thirds of your government When won’t my Social Security benefits be
pension is more than your Social Security benefit, reduced?
your benefit could be reduced to zero.
Generally, we won’t reduce your Social Security
For an estimate of how GPO could reduce your benefits as a spouse or surviving spouse if you:
Social Security benefit, refer to the GPO calculator. • Receive a government pension that’s not based
If you take your government pension annuity in a on your earnings.
lump sum, we will calculate the reduction as if you • Are a federal (including Civil Service Offset), state,
chose to get monthly benefit payments from your or local government employee and your pension
government work. is from a job for which you paid Social Security
taxes. One of the following may apply:
Why will my Social Security benefits be —Your last day of employment (that your pension
reduced? is based on) is before July 1, 2004.
Benefits we pay to spouses and surviving spouses —You filed for and were entitled to spouse’s or
are “dependent” benefits. Set up in the 1930s, surviving spouse’s benefits before April 1, 2004.
these benefits were to compensate spouses who (Note: You may work your last day in Social
stayed home to raise a family and were financially Security covered employment at any time.)
dependent on the working spouse. It’s now common —You paid Social Security taxes on your earnings
for both spouses to work, each earning their own during the last 60 months of government
Social Security retirement benefit. The law requires service. (Note: Under certain conditions, we

(over)
SocialSecurity.gov Government Pension Offset
 require fewer than 60 months for people whose If the spouse’s or surviving spouse’s benefit you
last day of employment falls after June 30, receive is not enough to cover the entire Medicare
2004, and before March 2, 2009. We reduce the Part B premium, we will use your benefits to offset
work covered by Social Security by the number the cost of the premium. After all credits are applied,
of months the worker was in government we will bill you for the remaining balance once a year.
service under the same retirement system on If your Social Security benefit is reduced to zero, you
or before March 2, 2004. The months do not will receive a bill from Medicare quarterly.
have to be consecutive. Any remaining months
needed to fulfill the 60 months requirement Can I still get Social Security benefits from
must be worked after March 2, 2004.)
my own work?
There are other situations for which we won’t reduce
The offset applies only to Social Security benefits
your Social Security benefits as a spouse or surviving
for a spouse or surviving spouse. However, we
spouse. For example, if you:
may reduce your own benefits because of another
• Are a federal employee who switched from the Civil provision. For more information, go online to read
Service Retirement System (CSRS) to the Federal Windfall Elimination Provision (Publication
Employees’ Retirement System (FERS) after No. 05-10045).
December 31, 1987, and:
Note: Legislation (Section 419c of Public Law 108-
—Your last day of service (that your pension is 20, the Social Security Protection Act of 2004)
based on) is before July 1, 2004. requires state and local government employers
—You paid Social Security taxes on your earnings to provide a statement to employees hired after
for 60 months or more during the period January 1, 2005, or later. This statement is the form
beginning January 1988 and ending with the SSA-1945, Statement Concerning Your Employment
first month of entitlement to benefits. in a Job Not Covered by Social Security.
—You filed for and were entitled to spouse’s or
surviving spouse’s benefits before April 1, 2004. Contacting Us
(Note: You may work your last day in Social
Security covered employment at any time). The most convenient way to do business with us is
to visit www.ssa.gov to get information and use our
• Received, or were eligible to receive, a
online services. There are several things you can
government pension before December 1982
do online: apply for benefits; start or complete your
and met all the requirements for Social Security
request for an original or replacement Social Security
spouse’s benefits in effect in January 1977.
card; get useful information; find publications; and get
• Received, or were eligible to receive, a federal, answers to frequently asked questions.
state, or local government pension before July 1,
1983, and received one-half support from your Or, you can call us toll-free at 1-800-772-1213 or
spouse. at 1-800-325-0778 (TTY) if you’re deaf or hard of
hearing. We can answer your call from 8 a.m. to 7 p.m.,
Note: A Civil Service Offset employee is a federal weekdays. We provide free interpreter services upon
employee, rehired after December 31, 1983, request. For quicker access to a representative, try
following a break in service of more than 365 days, calling early in the day (between 8 a.m. and 10 a.m.
with 5 years of prior CSRS coverage. local time) or later in the day. We are less busy later
in the week (Wednesday to Friday) and later in
What about Medicare? the month. You can also use our automated services
via telephone, 24 hours a day, so you do not need to
Even if you don’t get benefit payments from your speak with a representative.
spouse’s work, you can still get Medicare at age 65
on your spouse’s record if you aren’t eligible for it on
your own record.

Social Security Administration

Publication No. 05-10007
May 2024 (Recycle prior editions)
Government Pension Offset
Produced and published at U.S. taxpayer expense