WEP and GPO Repeal: Social Security Abroad 2026
Two provisions that reduced benefits for people with non-covered pensions were struck from the statute outright. The repeal is complete, its implementation is finished, and it leaves several rules that apply only to beneficiaries living outside the United States entirely untouched.
The Windfall Elimination Provision and Government Pension Offset were repealed outright by the Social Security Fairness Act, signed 5 January 2025 and effective for benefits payable for months after December 2023. The SSA finished adjusting records on 7 July 2025, having sent more than 3.1 million payments totalling over $17 billion. Rules specific to beneficiaries abroad are untouched.
| Item | Position |
|---|---|
| WEP and GPO | Struck, not modified, by the Social Security Fairness Act, Public Law 118-273, signed 5 January 2025 |
| Effective from | Monthly insurance benefits payable for months after December 2023 |
| Implementation | Complete. SSA finished adjusting existing records on 7 July 2025, five months ahead of schedule, having sent more than 3.1 million payments totalling over $17 billion. It is a closed programme, not a running total |
| Who was affected | About 2.8 million beneficiaries: roughly 2.1 million under the WEP, and about 380,000 spouses and 390,000 surviving spouses under the GPO |
| Cost | The Congressional Budget Office put it at $198 billion over 2024 to 2034, advancing the combined trust funds’ exhaustion date by roughly half a year |
| Totalization agreements | 30 in force. The most recent to enter into force was Iceland, on 1 March 2019 |
| Foreign Enforcement Program | Form SSA-7162 to beneficiaries abroad, SSA-7161 to representative payees. Biennial mailings are split by Social Security number, 00-49 in even years and 50-99 in odd years; annual mailing applies to those with representative payees, those aged 90 and over, and most beneficiaries in countries off the biennial list |
| Alien nonpayment | Under section 202(t), a non-citizen beneficiary outside the United States for six full consecutive calendar months cannot be paid from the seventh month of absence. Payment resumes only after a full calendar month back in the United States |
| Foreign work test | A beneficiary under full retirement age, working abroad in employment not subject to U.S. Social Security taxes, has benefits withheld for each month worked more than 45 hours — regardless of earnings |
| Taxation | Up to 85% of benefits may be included in gross income under section 86, on provisional-income thresholds of $25,000 and $34,000 for single filers and $32,000 and $44,000 for joint filers. Those figures are not indexed and have not changed |
| The 2025 senior deduction | A separate deduction of $6,000 for people aged 65 and over, phasing out above modified adjusted gross income of $75,000, or $150,000 for joint filers, for 2025 through 2028. IRS Publication 915 applies the section 86 thresholds unchanged |
| Claiming | For someone reaching 62 in 2026, born in 1964, full retirement age is 67. Claiming at 62 pays 70% of the full benefit. Delayed retirement credits accrue at 8% a year and stop at 70 |
What the repeal did, and what it did not
The Social Security Fairness Act of 2023, Public Law 118-273, was signed on 5 January 2025. It did not modify the Windfall Elimination Provision or the Government Pension Offset; it struck them — amending section 202(k) of the Social Security Act by striking paragraph (5), and section 215 by striking the relevant subsections. It applies to monthly insurance benefits payable for months after December 2023.
Roughly 2.8 million current beneficiaries had benefits reduced by one of the two provisions — the Congressional Budget Office breaks that down as about 2.1 million affected by the WEP, and about 380,000 spouses and 390,000 surviving spouses affected by the GPO, on a December 2025 basis. CBO put the cost at $198 billion over 2024 to 2034 and estimated that the change advances the combined trust funds’ exhaustion date by roughly half a year.
The implementation figures are final rather than running, and this is where dated summaries mislead. SSA completed the adjustment of existing records on 7 July 2025 — five months ahead of schedule — having sent more than 3.1 million payments totalling over $17 billion, and repeated the identical figures in press releases in January 2026 and again in May 2026. It is a closed programme, not a growing total.
What still applies to beneficiaries abroad
Five rules operate independently of the repeal, and three of them exist only because the beneficiary is outside the United States.
Totalization agreements — 30, not 31. SSA’s international programs pages state 30 U.S. agreements, and the status table enumerates 30, spanning most of Western Europe together with Australia, Brazil, Canada, Chile, Japan, Korea and Uruguay. The most recent to enter into force was Iceland, on 1 March 2019.
An agreement does two things. It applies a territoriality rule, so an employee who would otherwise be covered by both systems remains subject exclusively to the coverage laws of the country of work, with an exception for workers temporarily transferred by the same employer. And it allows credits to be combined: where a worker has some U.S. coverage but not enough to qualify, SSA counts periods earned under an agreement country’s programme. The benefit that results is a partial one, proportional to coverage actually earned — foreign credits count toward eligibility, not toward the amount.
Proof of life. SSA operates the Foreign Enforcement Program, sending form SSA-7162 to beneficiaries abroad, or SSA-7161 to representative payees, to verify that the beneficiary is alive and to capture events affecting entitlement. Contacts are annual or biennial; biennial mailings are split by Social Security number, 00-49 in even years and 50-99 in odd years, while annual mailing applies to beneficiaries with representative payees, those aged 90 and over, and most beneficiaries in countries not on the biennial list. Failure to return the form suspends payment.
Non-citizen dependants. Under section 202(t) of the Social Security Act, a non-citizen beneficiary outside the United States for six full consecutive calendar months cannot be paid from the seventh month of absence, and payment resumes only after a full calendar month back in the United States. Exceptions are numerous, and residence in a totalization-agreement country is the most important. A non-citizen dependant or survivor faces an additional requirement: five years of U.S. residence during which the qualifying family relationship existed — waived for those first eligible before 1 January 1985 and for residents of agreement countries. A U.S.-citizen worker’s own benefit is not at risk here; a foreign-national spouse’s derivative benefit can be.
Where payment cannot be sent. The Treasury prohibits payments to persons residing in Cuba or North Korea. SSA generally cannot send payments to persons in Azerbaijan, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan or Uzbekistan, though exceptions are possible on restricted-payment conditions. For a U.S. citizen in Cuba or North Korea the withheld payments are recoverable on moving to a country where SSA can pay.
The foreign work test. A beneficiary younger than full retirement age who works outside the United States in employment not subject to U.S. Social Security taxes has benefits withheld for each month worked more than 45 hours — regardless of earnings. Roughly ten hours a week costs a full month’s benefit, with no income floor. Where the foreign work is subject to U.S. Social Security tax, the ordinary annual earnings test applies instead.
What is specific to Americans abroad on the tax side
Up to 85% of benefits may be included in gross income under section 86, on provisional-income thresholds of $25,000 and $34,000 for single filers and $32,000 and $44,000 for joint filers. Those figures are not indexed and have not changed.
The 2025 legislation widely reported as ending tax on Social Security did nothing of the kind. It created a separate deduction of $6,000 for people aged 65 and over, phasing out above modified adjusted gross income of $75,000, or $150,000 for joint filers, and effective for 2025 through 2028. The deduction is age-based, not benefit-based: available to a 66-year-old drawing no benefits, unavailable to a 62-year-old drawing them. IRS Publication 915, issued for 2025 returns after the legislation, applies the unchanged section 86 thresholds and makes no mention of an exemption.
Treaties change the answer, and the difference between destinations is stark. Publication 915 states that U.S. citizens resident in Canada, Egypt, Germany, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Romania and the United Kingdom are exempt from U.S. tax on their benefits. Portugal is not among them: Article 20(1)(b) of the U.S.–Portugal convention provides that social security benefits and other public pensions paid by a contracting state may be taxed in that state — the paying state, the United States — and the Protocol’s saving clause allows the United States to tax its citizens as if the convention had not come into effect. An American retiring to Germany and one retiring to Portugal face different U.S. treatment of the same benefit.
Where the claiming decision actually sits
For someone reaching 62 in 2026, born in 1964, full retirement age is 67. Claiming at 62 pays 70% of the full benefit, a 30% reduction. Delayed retirement credits accrue at 8% a year and stop at 70, giving roughly 24% above the full benefit — SSA publishes the 8% rate and the age-70 cap rather than the combined figure, and illustrates the span as a benefit at 70 about 77% higher than at 62.
Those percentages are fixed. What is not is how they interact with the rest of a particular situation: the treaty position of the country of residence, whether a non-citizen spouse’s derivative benefit is exposed to the alien nonpayment rules, whether work abroad crosses 45 hours in a month, and how benefit income sits alongside other income in the section 86 computation. Anyone whose earlier decision — including a decision not to apply — was made under the WEP or GPO was working from rules that no longer exist.
Sources
- U.S. Government Publishing Office — Social Security Fairness Act of 2023, Public Law 118-273 (repeal text; effective for months after December 2023) — https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/PLAW-118publ273/html/PLAW-118publ273.htm — checked 2 August 2026
- Social Security Administration — Social Security Fairness Act (3.1 million payments, $17 billion, five months ahead of schedule) — https://www.ssa.gov/benefits/retirement/social-security-fairness-act.html — checked 5 August 2026
- Congressional Budget Office — Cost Estimate: H.R. 82, Social Security Fairness Act of 2023 (WEP/GPO split; $198 billion; trust fund effect) — https://www.cbo.gov/system/files/2024-09/hr82.pdf — checked 2 August 2026
- Social Security Administration — Status of Totalization Agreements, and Totalization Agreements Overview — https://www.ssa.gov/international/status.html — checked 2 August 2026
- Social Security Administration — Your Payments While You Are Outside the United States, Publication No. 05-10137 (April 2026) (restricted countries; alien nonpayment; 45-hour foreign work test) — https://www.ssa.gov/pubs/EN-05-10137.pdf — checked 2 August 2026
- Social Security Administration — POMS RS 02655.001, Foreign Enforcement Program — https://secure.ssa.gov/poms.nsf/lnx/0302655001 — checked 2 August 2026
- Social Security Administration — POMS RS 02610.001, Alien Nonpayment Provisions overview (section 202(t)) — https://secure.ssa.gov/poms.nsf/lnx/0302610001 — checked 2 August 2026
- Internal Revenue Service — Publication 915, Social Security and Equivalent Railroad Retirement Benefits (section 86 thresholds; treaty-exempt countries) — https://www.irs.gov/publications/p915 — checked 2 August 2026
- Internal Revenue Service — One Big Beautiful Bill Act: tax deductions for working Americans and seniors (the $6,000 age-65 deduction; 2025–2028) — https://www.irs.gov/newsroom/working-families-tax-cuts-tax-deductions-for-working-americans-and-seniors — checked 2 August 2026
- Internal Revenue Service — Convention between the United States and the Portuguese Republic, Article 20 and Protocol — https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-trty/portugal.pdf — checked 2 August 2026
- Social Security Administration — Annual Statistical Supplement 2025, Table 5.J, Geographic distribution of OASDI benefits (711,778 beneficiaries in foreign countries, December 2024) — https://www.ssa.gov/policy/docs/statcomps/supplement/2025/5j.html — checked 2 August 2026
- Social Security Administration — Benefits Planner: Early or Late Retirement — https://www.ssa.gov/benefits/retirement/planner/agereduction.html — checked 2 August 2026
Figures and rates cited were current as of August 2026 and are subject to change.
Common questions
- Did the Social Security Fairness Act reduce WEP and GPO, or get rid of them completely?
- It struck them. The Social Security Fairness Act of 2023, Public Law 118-273, signed on 5 January 2025, did not modify the Windfall Elimination Provision or the Government Pension Offset — it amended the Social Security Act by striking them, effective for monthly insurance benefits payable for months after December 2023. Roughly 2.8 million current beneficiaries had benefits reduced by one of the two provisions.
- How many hours can I work abroad before Social Security withholds my benefit?
- More than 45 hours in a month costs that month’s benefit. The rule reaches a beneficiary younger than full retirement age working outside the United States in employment not subject to U.S. Social Security taxes, and it applies regardless of earnings — roughly ten hours a week costs a full month’s benefit, with no income floor. Where the foreign work is subject to U.S. Social Security tax, the ordinary annual earnings test applies instead.
- Did the 2025 tax law actually end federal tax on Social Security benefits?
- No. The 2025 legislation created a separate deduction of $6,000 for people aged 65 and over, phasing out once modified adjusted gross income exceeds $75,000, or $150,000 for joint filers, and effective for 2025 through 2028. The deduction is age-based, not benefit-based. IRS Publication 915, issued for 2025 returns after the legislation, applies the unchanged section 86 thresholds and makes no mention of an exemption.
- Will the US still tax my Social Security if I retire to Portugal?
- Yes. Publication 915 states that U.S. citizens resident in Canada, Egypt, Germany, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Romania and the United Kingdom are exempt from U.S. tax on their benefits, and Portugal is not among them. Article 20(1)(b) of the U.S. convention with Portugal lets the paying state tax the benefit, and the Protocol’s saving clause allows the United States to tax its citizens as if the convention had not come into effect.
- Do I still need to claim my WEP or GPO adjustment, or has SSA already done it?
- The adjustment programme is finished. SSA completed the adjustment of existing records on 7 July 2025, five months ahead of schedule, having sent more than 3.1 million payments totalling over $17 billion, and it repeated those identical figures in press releases in January 2026 and again in May 2026. It is a closed programme, not a running total.
- Can Social Security stop my payments if I do not return a form while living abroad?
- Yes — failure to return the form suspends payment. SSA operates the Foreign Enforcement Program, sending form SSA-7162 to beneficiaries abroad, or SSA-7161 to representative payees, to verify that the beneficiary is alive and to capture events affecting entitlement. Contacts are annual or biennial, with biennial mailings split by Social Security number.
- Will my foreign spouse lose her Social Security benefit if we live outside the US?
- That benefit can be exposed, while a U.S.-citizen worker’s own benefit is not. Under section 202(t), a non-citizen beneficiary outside the United States for six full consecutive calendar months cannot be paid from the seventh month of absence, and payment resumes only after a full calendar month back in the United States. Exceptions are numerous.
- Are there countries where Social Security cannot send my payment at all?
- Yes. The Treasury prohibits payments to persons residing in Cuba or North Korea, and SSA generally cannot send payments to persons in Azerbaijan, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan or Uzbekistan, though exceptions are possible. For a U.S. citizen in Cuba or North Korea the withheld payments are recoverable on moving to a country where SSA can pay.
- Do my years of work in Germany increase my US Social Security payment?
- Foreign credits count toward eligibility, not toward the amount. Where a worker has some U.S. coverage but not enough to qualify, a totalization agreement lets SSA count periods earned under the other country’s programme, and the benefit that results is a partial one, proportional to coverage actually earned. Thirty agreements are in force.
- How much less do I get if I claim Social Security at 62 instead of my full retirement age?
- For someone reaching 62 in 2026, born in 1964, full retirement age is 67 and claiming at 62 pays 70% of the full benefit — a 30% reduction. Delayed retirement credits accrue at 8% a year and stop at 70, giving roughly 24% above the full benefit. SSA illustrates the span as a benefit at 70 about 77% higher than at 62.
- How much of my Social Security benefit is taxable by the US?
- Up to 85% of benefits may be included in gross income under section 86. The provisional-income thresholds are $25,000 and $34,000 for single filers and $32,000 and $44,000 for joint filers. Those figures are not indexed and have not changed, so more benefit income falls into the calculation over time without any change in the law.
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The information provided by US Expat is for educational and informational purposes only. It should not be treated as personalized tax, legal, immigration, investment, insurance, or financial advice. U.S. citizens abroad should consult qualified professionals who understand their specific facts and circumstances. US Expat is not a law firm, tax filing firm, or immigration law firm.
Rules and thresholds for U.S. citizens abroad change. Pages are reviewed periodically; confirm current details with a qualified professional before acting.
