 The 1.7 percent cost-of-living adjustment (COLA) will begin with
benefits that more than 58 million Social Security beneficiaries
receive in January 2015. Increased payments to more than 8 million
SSI beneficiaries will begin on December 31, 2014. The Social
Security Act ties the annual COLA to the increase in the Consumer
Price Index as determined by the Department of Labor’s Bureau of
Labor Statistics.
Some other changes that take effect in January of each year are
based on the increase in average wages. Based on that increase, the
maximum amount of earnings subject to the Social Security tax
(taxable maximum) will increase to $118,500 from $117,000. Of the
estimated 168 million workers who will pay Social Security taxes in
2015, about 10 million will pay higher taxes because of the increase
in the taxable maximum.
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column] |
Information about Medicare changes for 2015 is
available at www.Medicare.gov.
The Social Security Act provides for how the COLA is calculated. To
read more, please visit
www.socialsecurity.gov/cola.
[Social Security
Administration] |
