Windfall Elimination Provision (WEP) Online Calculator

If you are expecting to receive a pension based on work not covered by Social Security, (e.g. federal, state, or local government employment) it may reduce the amount of Social Security benefits we can pay you. Our Windfall Elimination Provision (WEP) Online Calculator can tell you how your benefits may be affected.

You will need to enter all of your earnings taxed by Social Security, which are shown on your online Social Security Statement.

You also need to enter the monthly amount of your pension that was based on work not covered by Social Security. If all of your pension income is covered by Social Security, you do not need to use this calculator and you can use the more straightforward Online Calculator instead.

WEP does not affect benefits for your survivors.

You can learn more about non-covered pensions and WEP on our Information for Government Employees page.

If you will receive a pension based on work not covered by Social Security but you do not have enough earnings to be insured for Social Security benefits, our Government Pension Offset (GPO) Calculator can tell you how your benefits as a spouse, widow, or widower may be affected.

Please Note:

  • The Online Calculator is updated periodically* with new benefit increases and other benefit amounts. Therefore, it is likely that your benefit estimates in the future will differ from those calculated today.
  • The Online Calculator works on PCs and Macs with Javascript enabled.
  • Some browsers may not allow you to print the table below.

*The most recent calculator update was in February 2022.

The Online Calculator temporarily stores information on your local computer while your browser is open. To protect your personal information, you should close your browser after you have finished your estimate.

(To protect your records from unauthorized users, the Online Calculator is not linked to your record of earnings in our database. Instead, we ask you to insert your earnings in the calculator. As we develop more secure authentication procedures in the future, we will insert your numbers directly from our earnings database.)

Note: If your birthday is on January 1st, we figure your benefit as if your birthday was in the previous year.

If you qualify for benefits as a Survivor, your full retirement age for survivors benefits may be different.

Enter your date of birth as month, day, and year, separated by slashes. (Example: If you were born on May 7, 1950, enter 5/7/1950.)

If your current work is covered by Social Security, enter the age, in years and months, when you plan to stop working in Social Security covered employment. If you are not currently working, or your work is not covered by Social Security, enter the age at which you will begin to receive your Social Security benefits and use a zero for your future earnings. Your Social Security covered earnings, even if zero, will be projected forward to that age.

Note: This calculator will accept a stop-work age up to 85. If the age you enter is less than 62, we estimate your benefit at age 62. If the age you enter is at least 62, we use that age when we estimate your benefit.

and

Your estimated benefit is shown in today's dollars, unless you choose to have it shown in future (inflated) dollars. If you choose future (inflated) dollars, the calculator bases the results on our estimates of how inflation could affect your benefit amount. (Use caution when using inflated dollar estimates to determine other retirement income sources you may need.)

Enter the monthly amount of your non-covered pension. This is for a Windfall Elimination Provision (WEP) calculation, which should be used only by people who have pensions from work not covered by Social Security. If you do not have a non-covered pension, you should use the Online Calculator, because the WEP calculation could be incorrect.

Annual earnings covered by Social Security

Notice that years in the chart are shown horizontally rather than vertically. You can tab from year to year and the zeros will be overlaid.

Enter your annual earnings on which you paid Social Security taxes from 1951 to 2021. Do not include earnings from the career in which you earned your non-covered pension.

Note: If you were born after 1951, any earnings you enter before your year of birth will be ignored.

Enter the earnings you will pay Social Security taxes on in 2022. If you will not have any covered employment, leave a zero in this field.

Enter the earnings you will pay Social Security taxes on in 2023. If you will not have any covered employment, leave a zero in this field. The calculator will use this same amount of earnings for each future year up to the year you expect to stop working.

Calculate

Press this button when you have entered all your information. Your estimated monthly benefits will be presented below.

Benefit eligibility

You must have sufficient earnings over a number of years to be insured for benefits. The requirements vary for retirement, disability, and survivor benefits. With the information you provided, these are the benefits you are eligible for:

Benefit estimates

Here are your benefit estimates.

For the disability and survivors estimates that follow, we assumed you will become disabled or die in 2022. We did not use earnings after 2022 in calculating these estimates.

Your monthly survivor benefits:

Retirement Planning

If you have an estimate of your monthly Social Security retirement benefit (in future, inflated dollars), you can use the Employee Benefit Research Institute (EBRI), Ballpark E$timate Online, to get a basic idea of how much you need to save before you retire.

Create a my Social Security Account

Choosing when to retire is an important and personal decision. The best way to start planning for your future is by creating a my Social Security account. With my Social Security, you can verify your earnings, get your Social Security Statement, and much more – all from the comfort of your home or office.

Note: If your Online Calculator retirement benefit estimate is in "today's dollars," you can still use the Online Calculator. Just go back to "Today's dollars or future dollars," select "future (inflated) dollars" and press the "Calculate Benefit" button to update your estimate.