The Social Security Fairness Act eliminated the WEP clause for benefits due starting January 2024. Anyone who was already receiving a pension reduced by WEP received back pay and a raise automatically. Anyone who has never applied for Social Security must do so themselves – benefits are awarded retroactively for a maximum of six months.
A year ago, I wrote on these pages about the passage of the Social Security Fairness Act – a law that repealed the WEP clause, which lowered American pensions for individuals receiving Polish benefits. At the time, many things were still uncertain: when the money would arrive, how much it would be, whether anything needed to be done. Today, the Social Security Administration has put that behind it, and we can summarize what has truly changed in the wallets of the Polish-American community. We can also point out the group that is still leaving money on the table: those who never applied because “they’ll take it away anyway.”
Reminder: What WEP took away
The Windfall Elimination Provision had been in effect since 1983. If someone had a pension from work for which Social Security taxes were not paid – such as a Polish ZUS or KRUS pension – their American benefit was calculated using a less favorable formula. In practice, this meant a permanent reduction in Social Security benefits by up to half of the Polish pension. Many people felt this as a penalty for working in Poland.
The Social Security Fairness Act, signed into law on January 5, 2025, repealed WEP and the related GPO clause for benefits due starting January 2024. December 2023 was the last month for which the reduction applied. Earlier years are not retroactively compensated.
One-year balance: 17 billion dollars
The Social Security Administration paid out arrears faster than anyone expected. The first transfers went out in the last week of February 2025, and by July 7, 2025, the agency completed over 3.1 million payments totaling $17 billion – five months ahead of its own schedule. The average back pay for the period starting January 2024 was $7,208. Since April 2025, retirees have been receiving increased monthly benefits.
| The Social Security Fairness Act in numbers | |
|---|---|
| Law signed | January 5, 2025 |
| WEP and GPO reductions eliminated starting | January 2024 (retroactive) |
| People affected by WEP or GPO | approx. 2.8 million |
| Back pay disbursed (by July 7, 2025) | over 3.1 million transfers, $17 billion |
| Average back pay | $7,208 |
| Average monthly raise (CBO estimate for December 2025) | worker $360 spouse $700 widow/widower $1,190 |
| New applications after the law’s passage (by September 30, 2025) | approx. 387 thousand |
| Cost to the system (CBO, 2024–2034) | approx. $198 billion |
Sources: Social Security Administration, Congressional Research Service (August 2026), Congressional Budget Office.
The scale of the raises varies greatly. Someone who had a low ZUS pension in Poland and thus a minor reduction in their American pension due to WEP might have received a few dozen dollars a month. Someone from whom WEP took the maximum amount recovered several hundred.
Who received money automatically
If you were already receiving a Social Security pension reduced by WEP, you didn’t have to do anything. The agency recalculated the benefit on its own, sent the back pay to the account where your pension is deposited, and mailed an explanation letter. Simple cases were handled automatically within a few months; complex ones, for example when someone received multiple types of benefits, were recalculated manually by officials.
If you still don’t see a raise today and WEP applied to you, check your account at www.ssa.gov/myaccount and call 1-800-772-1213. The most common reason for the agency’s silence is an outdated address or bank account number.
The group that still hasn’t received anything
However, there is a large group of Polish-Americans to whom the money has not and will not go automatically. These are people who never applied for Social Security because someone told them that with a Polish pension, “they’ll take everything anyway.” Or vice versa – for years they did not apply for a ZUS pension so as not to lose part of their American one. Both groups are losing money every month.
By September 30, 2025, SSA received approximately 387,000 new applications from people who had not applied previously. Remember: the agency does not look for eligible individuals. You must submit the application yourself.
Why every month of delay costs money
Here lies the most important message of this text. The law is retroactive to January 2024, but only for those who already had both benefits (American and Polish). If you are applying only now, standard Social Security rules apply: a pension can be granted a maximum of six months retroactively from the month of application, provided you have already reached full retirement age. No one will pay you arrears from 2024 just because WEP no longer exists.
Example: Mr. Stanisław, 70, has a ZUS pension and 25 years of work in New York, but never applied for Social Security. If he applied in January 2027, he would receive benefits starting July 2026. Each subsequent month of delay is one month of pension lost irrevocably. With a $1,500 benefit, a year of hesitation costs him $18,000.
Never applied? Do it now
- Create an account at www.ssa.gov/myaccount and check your earnings history and estimated benefit. 40 quarters of work in the USA (10 years) are sufficient.
- Apply for a retirement or spousal benefit online at www.ssa.gov/apply, by phone at 1-800-772-1213, or in person at an SSA office. Survivor benefits must be applied for solely by phone or at an office.
- Do not hide your Polish pension – declare it in your application. Starting in 2024, it has no impact on the amount of your benefit.
- Have fewer than 40 quarters? The Poland-USA social security agreement allows you to combine work periods in both countries if you have at least 6 quarters in the USA.
- You can apply for a ZUS pension through the American SSA office – the agencies transfer documents to each other, though it takes a long time. It is better to apply at a ZUS office during a visit to Poland.
- Have doubts? Consult the book “Emerytura polska i amerykańska” (Polish and American Pensions). For those returning to Poland, the book “Emerytura reemigranta w Polsce” (Returnee’s Pension in Poland) will help. They are available for download online at www.poradniksukces.com.
Spousal benefits: The quiet gain
One group is talked about the least. The Social Security Administration calculates spousal benefits at full retirement age as half of the worker’s pension. If the worker’s pension was reduced by WEP, the half for the wife or husband was also reduced. Today, it is calculated from the full amount, so both spousal benefits received the raise at once. WEP never reduced survivor benefits, so nothing changed there.
However, things did change for those who worked in the American public sector without paying Social Security taxes: teachers, municipal employees, and police officers with their own state pensions. The GPO clause took away their spousal or survivor benefits from a spouse, often entirely. If you were told years ago at an SSA office that you “aren’t entitled to anything” after your husband – apply again. That zero was the result of a rule that no longer exists.
What hasn’t changed
The repeal of WEP does not change other rules. Anyone who draws a pension before full retirement age and continues to work is still subject to the earnings limit. Anyone who received back pay must report it on their tax return for the year it was received – the SSA issued Form SSA-1099, and an accountant may apply the method of allocating the amount to previous years, which I wrote about a year ago. Finally: WEP is not coming back. The law has no expiration date, although it costs the system about $198 billion over a decade and brings forward the depletion date of the Social Security trust fund by roughly half a year. This is an argument that will come up again in Washington – but it is no reason to delay your application.
One more important matter. If you were collecting two pensions (Polish and American) before January 1, 2024, and did not disclose your Polish pension, you were receiving an inflated Social Security pension without the WEP reduction. In other words, the Social Security Administration may have overpaid you a certain amount, which you still owe despite the repeal of the WEP clause, because the repeal only applies to benefits paid out after January 1, 2024. Old arrears remain and can be enforced by the SSA.
Beware of scammers
The massive payout campaign has attracted fraudsters. Social Security does not call to inform you that “back pay is waiting,” nor does it ask for a fee to release it or for your account number over the phone. If someone offers help in “recovering” money for a commission – hang up and call the official number yourself.
Elżbieta Baumgartner is the author of many guidebook books, including “Planowanie spadkowe, czyli jak uporządkować swoje sprawy w Stanach i w Polsce” (Estate Planning: How to Organize Your Affairs in the US and Poland) and “Jak chować pieniądze przed fiskusem” (How to Hide Money from the Taxman). They are available in electronic version on the Poradnik Sukces website: www.PoradnikSukces.com, [email protected], tel. 1-718-224-3492.
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Materials are for informational purposes and do not constitute legal, tax, financial, or medical advice. In matters concerning your specific situation, it is worth consulting a specialist. The authors and publisher are not responsible for the consequences of using this information.
