Earnings Test
The Social Security Earnings Test is a reduction in an individual’s Social Security payments made when he or she continues to work after benefits begin and earns over an allowable amount ($24,480 for 2026). For every $2 earned over this amount, the individual will give up $1 in benefits between age 62 and their full retirement age (65-67, depending on year of birth; 67 for those retiring in 2026 and after). In the year you reach your full retirement age, you can earn up to a separate limit ($65,160 in 2026) in the months before you reach your full retirement age with no reduction in benefits; for every $3 you earn over that limit in that period, $1 is withheld from benefits. There is no earnings test after full retirement age. The only money that is counted for earnings test purposes is money which you receive for work you perform, whether as an employee or a self-employed person; it does not apply to other forms of income such as an annuity.
Government Pension Offset and Windfall Elimination Provision Repeal
The Windfall Elimination Provision (WEP) traditionally had reduced the personally earned Social Security benefits of persons based on other earnings for which they did pay into Social Security, unless those earnings exceeded an annual threshold for at least 30 years. This affected those under the Civil Service Retirement System and the retirement systems of some state and local governments.
The Government Pension Offset (GPO) meanwhile similarly had reduced, and in many cases eliminated, spousal or survivor Social Security benefits of those who receive an annuity from a system that does not include Social Security.
However, the WEP and GPO were repealed in late 2024 by the Social Security Fairness Act, effective retroactively to the end of calendar year 2023. In 2025, the Social Security Administration recalculated benefits and made back payments starting with payments for January 2024 to some 2.8 million persons affected by one or both of those reductions.