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RESEARCH, STATISTICS & POLICY ANALYSIS

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Analysis > Program Explainer: Government Pension Offset
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PROGRAM EXPLAINERS

 1. Benefit
    Claiming Age
 2. Government
    Pension Offset
 3. Retirement
    Earnings Test
 4. Scheduled vs.
    Payable Benefits
 5. Special
    Minimum Benefit
 6. Why Will Poverty Decline
    for Beneficiaries?
 7. Windfall Elimination
    Provision

GOVERNMENT PENSION OFFSET


Released: May 2024

BACKGROUND: The Government Pension Offset (GPO) adjusts Social Security spousal
or widow(er) benefits for people who receive “non-covered pensions.” A
non-covered pension is a pension paid by an employer that does not withhold
Social Security taxes from your salary, typically, state and local governments
or non-U.S. employers.

Congress created the GPO in 1977 to help ensure that spousal and widow(er)
benefits of those with covered or non-covered lifetime earnings would be roughly
equal. a Under Social Security's dual-entitlement rule, spouses with their own
covered earnings have their spousal benefits offset dollar-for-dollar by their
own earned benefit. The GPO has a similar intention; the offset originally was
dollar-for-dollar for non-covered pensions, but Congress reduced it to
two-thirds in 1983.

HOW THE GPO WORKS: The GPO reduces the spousal or widow(er) benefit by
two-thirds of the monthly non-covered pension and can partially, or fully,
offset an individual's spousal/widow(er) benefit, depending on the amount of the
non-covered pension. The chart below shows how the GPO would affect spousal
benefits for two non-covered pension amounts.



CHARACTERISTICS OF GPO BENEFICIARIES: b In 2022, the GPO applied to
approximately 12.6 percent of the 5.84 million spousal or widow(er)
beneficiaries c (734,601 beneficiaries). Beneficiaries affected by the GPO had
an average monthly non-covered pension of $2,690, which was nearly $865 more
than the average Social Security retired worker benefit of $1,825 in 2022.
Nearly 70 percent of beneficiaries affected by the GPO had their entire spousal
or widow(er) benefit offset and had an average monthly non-covered pension
of $3,502. Those with partially offset benefits had an average non-covered
pension of $999.



a. Social Security Administration, Annual Statistical Supplement, 2023, p. 16.

b. GPO beneficiary tabulations are based on unpublished data from the Social
Security Administration, Office of Research, Evaluation, and Statistics.

c. Includes spouses of retired and disabled workers and disabled and
non-disabled widow(er)s. See Social Security Administration, Annual Statistical
Supplement, 2023, Table 5.A1.

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