WEP and GPO: what each official record says about itself

Look up the Windfall Elimination Provision (WEP) and the Government Pension Offset (GPO) in two different official places on the same day and you get two different pictures. On September 5, 2026, the federal regulation sections behind both provisions came back complete from the eCFR’s current content service, and a case-insensitive search of what those returns contained found no occurrence of “Fairness” and none of “SSFA”. On that same day, SSA’s own January 2026 publication said the Fairness Act ended the WEP for benefits payable for months after December 2023, and SSA’s update page said December 2023 is the last month WEP and GPO apply.

This article reports what each of those five records states about itself and about its own currency. It does not decide which record governs, and it does not say what any individual’s benefit is or became.

This original record-reading guide is a general reading aid, not cited evidence. It does not depict a source record; the article text and source links provide the facts.

Key facts

• On September 5, 2026, the eCFR’s current content service returned both 20 CFR 404.213 and 20 CFR 404.408a complete, with no repeal note and no “Link to an amendment published at …” line. For § 404.213 the return also carried no editorial or effective-date note.
• A case-insensitive search of each of those two sections’ content, as returned by that service on September 5, 2026, found no occurrence of “Fairness” and no occurrence of “SSFA”.
• SSA’s publication states that the SSFA “ended the WEP for benefits payable for months after December 2023”, and SSA’s update page states that “December 2023 is the last month that WEP and GPO will apply.”
• Each record carries its own date: the eCFR’s own currency record for title 20 gives it as up to date as of September 3, 2026, and last amended August 20, 2026, as observed on September 5, 2026; the two SSA publications date their editions January 2026 and March 2025; the update page says “Last updated July 21, 2025”.

Records in play

Five public records sit behind this question, and all five were read on the same day. Two are regulation sections in the eCFR: 20 CFR 404.213, returned under the heading “Computation where you are eligible for a pension based on your noncovered employment”, and 20 CFR 404.408a, returned under the heading “Reduction where spouse is receiving a Government pension.” Three are SSA’s own: Publication No. 05-10045 on the Windfall Elimination Provision, Publication No. 05-10007 on the Government Pension Offset, and SSA’s Social Security Fairness Act page.

They are different kinds of record, and that is the whole reason they can differ on the same day. The eCFR carries regulation text as the agency has filed it. The SSA publications and the update page are the agency explaining a benefit rule to the public. Each of the five also dates itself, in its own way and in its own place, which is what makes a side-by-side reading possible at all.

The eCFR currency record

The eCFR is the continuously updated web edition of the Code of Federal Regulations, and it keeps a currency record for title 20. Title 20, which the same record names “Employees’ Benefits”, contains the Social Security regulation parts read here. The eCFR’s own currency record for title 20 gives it as up to date as of September 3, 2026, and last amended August 20, 2026, as observed on September 5, 2026.

That marker is the eCFR’s own statement about the currency of title 20 as a whole on that date. It does not say, on its own, whether any particular section inside title 20 changed, so the two sections have to be read individually.

Section 404.213 as returned

On September 5, 2026, § 404.213 was returned complete from the eCFR’s current content service, with subsections (a) through (f) present. The return carried no repeal note, no editorial or effective-date note, and no “Link to an amendment published at …” line. A case-insensitive search of that section’s content, as returned by the eCFR’s current content service on September 5, 2026, found no occurrence of “Fairness” and no occurrence of “SSFA”.

The section carries a source-credit bracket, the line of Federal Register citations attached to it. As returned that day it read in full: [52 FR 47916, Dec. 17, 1987, as amended at 55 FR 21382, May 24, 1990; 57 FR 22429, May 28, 1992; 60 FR 17444, Apr. 6, 1995; 60 FR 56513, Nov. 9, 1995]. The final citation in that bracket is “60 FR 56513, Nov. 9, 1995”. All of this is an observation about one section, on one surface, at one moment — not a statement that the regulation has never been amended, that no amendment exists, or that the section is or is not in force.

Section 404.408a as returned

The GPO section followed the same pattern. On September 5, 2026, § 404.408a was likewise returned complete from that service, with subsections (a) through (e) present, no repeal note, and no amendment link, and a case-insensitive search of its returned content found no occurrence of “Fairness” and none of “SSFA”. Its source-credit bracket read in full: [49 FR 41245, Oct. 22, 1984; 50 FR 20902, May 21, 1985, as amended at 51 FR 23052, June 25, 1986; 60 FR 56513, Nov. 9, 1995; 80 FR 34050, June 15, 2015], ending with “80 FR 34050, June 15, 2015”. The same bounds apply: this describes what that surface returned that day.

SSA publication colophons

SSA’s Windfall Elimination Provision publication opens with a statement about the law: “The Social Security Fairness Act of 2023 (SSFA) ends the Windfall Elimination Provision (WEP). The SSFA, signed into law on January 5, 2025, ended the WEP for benefits payable for months after December 2023.” The publication dates its own edition in its colophon, which reads “Publication No. 05-10045” and, on the line below it, “January 2026 (Recycle prior editions)”.

The Government Pension Offset publication is dated differently and frames itself differently. Its colophon dates the edition “March 2025 (Recycle prior editions)”, and near the top of page 1 SSA prints a reading instruction about its own contents: “Note: The following information outlines the GPO provision prior to the enactment of the SSFA.” That note is worth catching, because it tells a reader that the description which follows is of the provision as it stood before the SSFA rather than after it.

The SSA update page

SSA’s Social Security Fairness Act page states plainly: “December 2023 is the last month that WEP and GPO will apply.” The page dates itself directly beneath its title, “Last updated July 21, 2025”.

One practical detail matters for anyone checking this themselves. That sentence sits inside one of the page’s expandable questions, so a reader who lands on the page and does not open the answers will see the questions only and will not see the sentence at all.

Where the records diverge

Record	How it dates itself	What it stated, as observed September 5, 2026
20 CFR 404.213 (eCFR)	Title 20 currency record: up to date as of September 3, 2026, last amended August 20, 2026; section bracket ends “60 FR 56513, Nov. 9, 1995”	Returned complete; no repeal note, no amendment link; no occurrence of “Fairness” or “SSFA” in the returned content
20 CFR 404.408a (eCFR)	Same title 20 currency record; section bracket ends “80 FR 34050, June 15, 2015”	Returned complete; no repeal note, no amendment link; no occurrence of “Fairness” or “SSFA” in the returned content
SSA Pub. No. 05-10045	Colophon: “January 2026 (Recycle prior editions)”	SSA states the SSFA “ended the WEP for benefits payable for months after December 2023”
SSA Pub. No. 05-10007	Colophon: “March 2025 (Recycle prior editions)”	SSA notes the information that follows “outlines the GPO provision prior to the enactment of the SSFA”
SSA Fairness Act page	“Last updated July 21, 2025”	SSA states “December 2023 is the last month that WEP and GPO will apply”

The divergence a reader runs into is one of record currency, and each record signals its currency somewhere different. The eCFR publishes a date for the whole title plus a citation bracket under each of these two sections. The two publications print their edition month in a colophon on the page. The web page prints a last-updated line under its title. Knowing where each marker lives is what lets a reader tell which record they are actually holding, and how recently that particular record spoke.

What these records leave open

This article does not report what any individual’s benefit is, was, or became, and none of the five records was read here for that purpose. It also does not resolve how the statute and the regulation text relate to each other, and nothing above should be read as a conclusion about which record controls a benefit calculation. A reader with a question about their own payment should take it to SSA directly.

If you check any of this later, the markers themselves are what to re-read: the eCFR’s currency record for title 20 and its last-amended date, the source-credit bracket under each of the two sections, the colophon month on each of the two publications, and the last-updated line on the Fairness Act page. Three of these five records can change at the same web address, so the date on the record matters as much as the record.

Source records

• 20 CFR 404.213 (eCFR, current) — section content, source-credit bracket, and the absence check, as returned September 5, 2026.
• 20 CFR 404.408a (eCFR, current) — section content, source-credit bracket, and the absence check, as returned September 5, 2026.
• SSA Publication No. 05-10045, Windfall Elimination Provision — opening SSFA statement and colophon edition line, read September 5, 2026.
• SSA Publication No. 05-10007, Government Pension Offset — reading instruction and colophon edition line, read September 5, 2026.
• SSA, Social Security Fairness Act — end-month sentence and last-updated date, read September 5, 2026.