Some Widows and Divorced Spouses Can Now Get More From Social Security — Here’s Who Qualifies

The Social Security Fairness Act eliminated GPO, potentially increasing benefits for some widows and divorced spouses with government pensions. People who never applied may need to file a claim. Tada Images/Shutterstock

Some widows, widowers, and divorced spouses are receiving Social Security benefits they couldn’t have collected (or couldn’t collect in full) under rules that existed just a couple of years ago. The change comes from the Social Security Fairness Act, which repealed two provisions known as the Windfall Elimination Provision (WEP) and Government Pension Offset (GPO). According to the Social Security Administration, the law affects certain retirement, disability, spouse, and surviving-spouse benefits for people who receive pensions from employment that wasn’t covered by Social Security. Across all beneficiaries affected by WEP and GPO (not only widows and divorced spouses), SSA also completed more than 3.1 million payments totaling $17 billion while implementing the law. Here is what widows and divorced spouses need to know about exactly who qualifies for higher Social Security survivor benefits.

The Government Pension Offset Used to Reduce Some Survivor Checks