It is hard to imagine how many changes Social Security makes every year. You can get an idea of some of them just by reading their press releases. The depth of their processes, though, means that it will take some time to understand each one.
The four most important updates that will affect you no matter what program you are in or whether you want to join any of the Social Security Administration’s (SSA) programs will be presented to you in order to save you time.
What will Social Security change about your benefit’s size?
You have probably heard about this at least once in the last six months; it is one of the most anticipated events. The amount of monthly Social Security benefits given to the more than 70 million people who receive them is changed by the Social Security Administration every year. Using an index called COLA, there is a process of making changes every October.
This is the way the COLA adjustment is worked out every year. The CPI-W values for July, August, and September are first chosen. The CPI-W stands for the Consumer Price Index for Urban Wage Earners and Clerical Workers.
This is important because the CPI-W shows what people in households where the main income earner has a wage-paying or clerical job like to buy. The increase between the two years is found by taking the average of these three numbers and comparing it to the average from the previous year.
This is what the COLA index is made up of. It was set at 2.5% and will affect everyone who gets government assistance. The SSA did the following average math to figure out how much benefits will go up next year:
| SSA Program | Amounts Considering and Individual Application | |
| 2024 | 2025 | |
| Retirement Insurance | $1,927 | $1,976 |
| Survivor | $1,788 | $1,832 |
| Disability Insurance | $1,542 | $1,580 |
| Supplemental Security Income | $ 943 | $ 967 |
How restrictive will Social Security be about your earnings as a retiree?
You should take advantage of any side jobs that can help you make extra money after you retire. The Social Security Administration will take some of your wages, though, as part of the Retirement Earning Test (RET).
This means that if you make more money, your benefits will go down. This will not last forever; when you turn 70, it will go back to the way it was. The good news is that the amount of money you can get from Social Security each year will go up from $22,320 to $23,400.
Will those who are contributing to Social Security pay more in taxes?
It does not matter if you work for someone else or as a freelancer—either way, you should pay Social Security taxes on some of your earnings every month.
There is a limit on how much money you can make before you have to pay taxes. This limit will go up from $168,600 to $176,100 next year. With this change, a bigger chunk of your income will be taxed.
How easy will it be to get Social Security in the next year?
This is a tough case. First, we are thinking about the many changes that the next government might make to the Social Security System next year in order to keep it financially stable, even though it is expected that money will run out in 2035.
Some options are raising the Full Retirement Age (FRA), lowering the amount of money people get from Social Security, increasing the percentage of taxes people pay, or making it harder for people to get into some programs.
For now, it is true that a Social Security Credit will go up from $1,730 to $1,810. Because of this, you will need more money over the course of the year to get the full four Social Security credits.
This is important because you need at least 40 of them to be insured and, as a result, be able to get retirement benefits when you turn 62.
