Social Security Benefits to Increase in 2018
Reading Time: 1 MinuteLast Updated: October 13, 2017
When we announce the annual cost-of-living adjustment (COLA), there’s usually an increase in the Social Security and Supplemental Security Income (SSI) benefit amount people receive each month. Federal benefit rates increase when the cost of living rises, as measured by the Department of Labor’s Consumer Price Index (CPI-W).
The CPI-W rises when prices increase, making your cost of living go up. This means prices for goods and services, on average, are a little more expensive. The COLA helps to offset these costs. As a result, more than 66 million Americans will see a 2.0 percent increase in their Social Security and SSI benefits in 2018.
Other changes that will happen in January 2018 are based on the increase in the national average wage index. For example, the maximum amount of earnings subject to Social Security payroll tax will increase to $128,700. The earnings limit for workers younger than “full” retirement age will increase to $17,040 and the limit for people turning “full” retirement age in 2018 will increase to $45,360.
You can find more information about the 2018 COLA here.
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Tags: Cost of living adjustment, Social Security benefits
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Jim Borland, Acting Deputy Commissioner for Communications
Jim Borland, Acting Deputy Commissioner for Communications
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Car
Please be transparent about this 2% increase….The majority of the Social Security Recipients will receive a 0% increase to their bottom line…any increase of $25 or less will go towards the $134 Medicare Part B Premium that increased in 2017. (Read the Hold Harmless Clause for Social Security recipients that do direct deposit) When the premium increased to $134 (2017) the direct deposit recipient’s increase was only increased by 0.03% and their bottom line (actual deposit) remained the same…Now that their will be a 2% increase anything $25 or less will be applied to their current Part B Premium to make the premium equal to a maximum of $134 premium….Be transparent and tell the truth…the 2%, for the most part is being moved from the Social Security Account to the Medicare Account; not to the Social Security Recipients bottom line…this will probably be the norm for years…We need to change this system in order for people to be able to afford food/housing/health coverage/and just the basics…
Linda
Two percent is a slap in the face! They owe us eight years!
cheryl
that Obama care is the cause of no raise it takes care that don”t pay it keeps going up we need to tell then to get rid of it we pay for it all welfare got a big raise see we nothing
LK
I took early retirement at 62 but worked part time for a few years- when My husband became ill and retired at 65 he would receive medicare. As my husband became more ill and needed in home care I took a leave from my part time job to care for him. After my husband passed away I contacted SS and was told I would receive an increase on my SS each month-I would receive all of my SS and and part of what my husband had received to make my SS equal to my husbands. I thought this was unfair – My husband had worked since he turned 15 yrs old paid into SS and where was the rest of his SS going – back into the “POT” for other people I was told! I really think this is unfair- my income after the increase was 1/3 less than what we had received as a couple –
AKA
The expenses for one person vs. two people is less, and that is what’s fair.
azure
that’s how it works, when you are widowed, you get the same amount as the higher wage earner’s individual benefit was. That’s how the program works,i.e, what the statute directs SSA to do. Some of that amount is paid from your wage earner’s benefit, the rest from your deceased spouse’s wage earner’s record. You paid in, so did he, so you’re paid from both records.
If you don’t like how the program works, complain to your members of Congress-they’re the people who could revise the Social Security statutes. It sounds like you think you should get your own benefit plus all of your husband’s individual benefit–not in the statute as currently interpreted by SSA, federal courts, etc. But Congress could amend or revise Title II of the Social Security Act to make it so. Your members of Congress are the ones to communicate with on that issue, and the more people who do so, who knows, maybe a majority of Congress might actually act to mprove the financial positions of non-wealthy people, and the Chief Executive wouldn’t veto it. Of course, the retirement trust fund might run low sooner, but . . . Congress would fix that the same way it was fixed in the 1980’s. I’d sure like to see some so-called “capital gains” (thinking of you, hedge fund managers, et al) treated as the income they actually are, and the earnings level SS is paid on tied to actual rate of inflation.
Dina P.
I am still trying to get the SSA to tell me how I got SSI rather than SSDI that I applied for. By the time the CR crossed out my real application date which automatically lowered my monthly payments and with the SSA listening to the employer about how much they would pay for workers comp, AND THEY DID NOT PAY ANYTHING EVER.. (an all too common problem for many who were totally disabled by the job). MY SSDI went to SSI and I know that my SSDI benefits should be more. My daughters too were cheated as well. There were other offsets but the conclusion to this is, that I cannot get anyone in the SSA to address my problems about the shortage of my monthly payments. I’ve done my part, going to the offices, writing, phoning and nobody in the SSA will talk to me. Something is greatly wrong with this and it all needs to be corrected. Is anybody at the SSA willing to help me or will I continue to be ignored by the SSA?
AKA
You have a perception that you are being cheated, that perception will not change. I suspect that the SS employees are sick and tired explaining the same thing to you over and over.
ItsJustmeD
Indeed!
ST S.
Are you sure you had enough quarters to qualify for SSDI? It is impossible for SSI to be approved *instead of* SSDI, though it is possible to be approved for SSI *in addition* to SSDI, to get a partial SSI amount to bring a low SSDI amount up to the SSI level for your state.
John
I’ll be getting about $31.80 more a month, so it’s better than the $5.00 I got last years and it all went to pay the increase in the Medicare increase.
JP
Yeah, I want to know why Medicare consistently goes up EVERY year?!! Premiums, deductibles…it’s ridiculous! Example: 2017 Inpatient deductible is over $1300! It’s seems to increase $15 or more every year! Give us a break Medicare!!
AKA
Do some research, it does not go up each year, especially when we did not get a COLA.
JP
AKA – I’m not talking about COLA. Do your research. Just proves you didn’t even know what I was talking about – MEDICARE! Hello…
Charlotte N.
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Charlotte N.
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Charlotte N.
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Sue
My husband started collecting SS on his retirement age 66 and is still working fulltime. He will be working until 68 God willing. Will his SS increase?
Sue
I meant increase more when he retires completely?
R.F.
Thank you for your question, Sue. Generally, if you continue to work while receiving retirement benefits, your monthly benefit amount could increase. Each year, we review the records for all working Social Security recipients to see if additional earnings may increase monthly benefits. See our Retirement Planner: Getting Benefits While Working for more information.
Elizabeth
NOT TRUE
ST S.
Whether his benefit increases depends on his earnings. If the last years he works are his highest earning years, then the benefit could go up. If his highest earning years were when he was younger, then, no.
AKA
Yes.
brian w.
everything related to any social service from pensions to veterans benefits to health care public transport etc etc in USA is 50 years behind northern europe
If my children and granddchild werent here Id be out of this crap excuse for a country tomorrow
AKA
You can leave now and take them with you. You’ll not be missed.
James L.
Hello Jim Borland & SS Team,
Thank-you very much for this great information. I am now 71 and I was forced to retire over 3 years ago when I was 68, My doctor tells me that I will probably live for at least 30 more years. While working over 40 years, I did make a lot of Social Security payments.
I am working very hard on future investments for my self. So I can prepared for more 30 years.
Since my Social Security was reduced a little in my 2nd retirement year. It is great that Social Security Benefits will increase next year. That will help me save my life.
Good luck,
Jim Myers
R.F.
Thank you for your comment Mr. Myers, and thank you for sharing!