With the New Year Comes New Changes
Reading Time: 1 MinuteLast Updated: March 17, 2021
Monthly Social Security and Supplemental Security Income (SSI) benefits will see a slight increase in 2017.
Some other adjustments 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 $127,200 from $118,500. Of the estimated 173 million workers who will pay Social Security taxes in 2017, about 12 million will pay more because of the increase in the taxable maximum.
Thresholds for benefits will change slightly next year including the Substantial Gainful Activity (SGA), SSI Federal Payment Standard, and SSI Student Exclusion.
Information about Medicare changes for 2017 are available at www.Medicare.gov. For some beneficiaries, their Social Security increase may be partially or completely offset by increases in Medicare premiums.
The Social Security Act provides for how the Cost of Living Adjustment is calculated. To read more, please visit www.socialsecurity.gov/cola.
Learn more about the resulting changes at our factsheet on the subject: www.socialsecurity.gov/news/press/factsheets/colafacts2017.pdf.
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Tags: Medicare, retirement, retirement benefits, Social Security benefits, SSI, supplemental security income
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Jim Borland, Assistant Deputy Commissioner, Communications
Jim Borland, Assistant Deputy Commissioner, Communications
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HW
Call your gov. reps. and ask the what happened to the bill HR4012 ?. tell them to live on what we are getting !
Sammy L.
Social Security is for loser.
Susan
When you work and pay into it your whole life, you ARE NOT A LOSER!
GUIDRY
MUST BE A CONSERVATIVE TALKING ? SOCIAL IS A GIFT NOT AN ENTITLEMENT.
Kal
What the hell are you talking about? Social Security is most cerainly an ENTITLEMENT. Read all about it here:
https://www.ssa.gov/ssi/text-entitle-ussi.htm
Carol
Social Security is ACTUALLY a benefit which we paid into for 40 to 50 years. It is NOT a gift or a free handout/ entitlement. How can something be an entitlement when I paid into it for almost 50 years????
Geraldine L.
SS is not an entitlement, it belongs to those of us that paid into a fund that was supposed to be their when we retired. It is OUR money. Do you live in cave to think the way you do?
mike
Guidry, fix your KEYBOARD!!
bettyg
guidry,
please take OFF your capital lock; use LOWER CASE please.
it’s considered shouting using ALL caps; it’s hard to read, and short paragraphs are appreciated.
thanks!
John B.
Losers are those on welfare that depend on us the tax payers to eat and have a roof over their heads. Those are the ones you should be calling losers and not us that paid to have social security during our working years.
mike
no, everyone on welfare are not losers,some are. people that need help, should get help. if i wasnt on s.s. i could use some help.what am i saying, im on s.s. and i need help!
Katherine
You only payo1% of your tax dollars to welfare. You call these people losers ? You created a lot of these so called losers when people push their beliefs on other people. The majority of welfare recipients are women with children, where do you think women go for support after being told they can’t or should not have an abortion ?
Wiselady
Many self-employed entrepreneurs worked so hard to keep their little businesses afloat and couldn’t contribute much of anything to their own IRAs or life insurance, so please don’t label them losers. They are the salt of the earth and are the hard workers that make America as good as it is.
Marc P.
Said the guy who can’t even use correct grammar.
susanne b.
wow…Sammy! What could cause you to say that? SS is for those who work to retirement putting into a retirement plan to take them to their golden years. How can you call them losers?! SS was an investment for them to retire on….you are hard core to make such a blanketed statement that really is b.s. Susanne
STAN W.
What president borrowed our S.S. money as a loan and then used it to spend on anything that came to mind ?
I thought that the S.S. money was not to be used except for what it was collected for.
Why can’t congress pass a law that would have those branches of government each pay something until some of that borrowed money comes back to the S.S. account ?
I know it will never happen, but someone has to put these law makers in their place !
Wiselady
Borrowing from the “S. Security Trust Fund” started happening almost as early as the program got going! It’s not REALLY a trust fund, it’s not REALLY set-aside money. It’s a shell game the govt plays, and you can blame the bureaucratic machine that looks out for itself as well as Congress and Presidents.
Geraldine L.
How right you both are!!!
Ray F.
Any funds that have been “borrowed” from the Social Security Trust Funds have always been paid back in full, plus interest. Social Security is a pay-as-you-go system. Social Security taxes collected from today’s workers pay the benefits of today’s retirees. Any funds in excess of what is needed to pay today’s benefits are invested in special issue, U.S. Government, interest-bearing securities. This investment – the purchase of U.S. Government securities – is what constitutes the “borrowing” that people are sometimes concerned about. Investing in (i.e., purchasing of) bonds (including these special issue securities) is always a loan to the party that floats the bond – in this case, the U.S. Treasury. In 2014, the Trust Fund asset reserves earned $98 billion in interest at an effective annual rate of 3.6 percent through investment in these special issue U.S. Government securities. Please check out our Trust Fund Frequently Asked Questions page for more information.
PAUL V.
THIS IS THE WORST OF THE WORST. NO COLA INCREASE THIS YEAR AND 0.3 FOR 2017. I DON’T KNOW WHERE YOU PEOPLE GET YOUR INFORMATION. YOU PEOPLE GO OUT AND SHOP JUST LIKE WE DO. YOU SEE WHAT IS HAPPENING OUT THERE, PRICES ARE GOING THROUGH THE ROOF. YOUR NEIGHBOR MEDICARE COSTS ARE INCREASING AND THOSE OF US THAT HAVE SUPPLEMENTAL INSURANCE COST ARE ALSO INCREASING. HOW COME ALL THESE INCREASES AND YET YOU PEOPLE IGNORE IT AND SAY. ” NO INCREASE THIS YEAR BOYS AND GIRLS”. HELL I HAVE ALREADY CUT BACK ON MY MEDICATIONS BECAUSE I AM IN “THE DOUGHNUT HOLE” AND CANNOT AFFORD TO PAY THEIR PRICES. YES THIS IS THE WORST OF THE WORST.
Nelson
They probably trying to kill us all with massive heart attack’s, so they won’t have to pay us any more SS.
The older we are, the less value as human,s. Let’s see what will happen when our new president step’s-up! Let’s see if America will be great again! Mr. President please don’t forget us!
Wiselady
Did you notice that anyone in Hospice gets everything covered by Medicare with no deductibles? Sounds like govt is in the death business now, even though to family survivors it is merciful.
mike
if they dont starve us, theyll o.d. us sad
Sam
He is for himself not you, wake up.
Sue R.
Our Representatives and Senators enjoy increases more than .03 percent. Why can’t they live by the same rules the rest of us do?
GUIDRY
BECAUSE YOU THE VOTERS VOTED THEM IN AND IF YOU HAPPEN TO BE A CONSERVATIVE VOTER YOU GET WHAT YOU DESERVE !
Juie
Do you really think anyone cares about whether you are a liberal or conservative. I don’t think that’s the point of this discussion. The election is over so maybe you should move on.
Wiselady
The mass media on TV and radio is responsible for many people’s opinions which leads to incumbents getting back in. Shame on the media moguls and advertisers who don’t care about truth!
cjf
Agreed, the worst being Limbaugh and those like him
Jesus D.
THE PEOPLE Whom have been working in this country the hole life get less money for social security than the one who arrived on a life boat or cross the border and said heló here I’m or those mothers with 4,5,6 kid WITHOUT FATHER 35 millions on WELFARE
John B.
You got that right and it’s never going to be changed.
Wiselady
You are right. It’s not “politically correct” to say it aloud, but very true.
mike
yep! you got that right.
Stephen M.
I find it interesting that the SS benefit will increase by .3% next year but the SS taxable maximum will increase 7.34% ($118,500 to $127,200). Obviously different indices are being used to calculate appropriate changes in these amounts.
Why should there be a difference?
Gary &.
The taxable maximum is on people’s income who are still paying in to SS. It should and will have to be increased a whole lot more than that and will have to be. to keep the program afloat for many more years to come. To millionaires, that $127,200 max cutoff is chicken feed. Still, the program is solvent for many more years. It is a most efficient and well run program. People should do some research before they start bitcxxxx about it.
Stephen M.
Fair is Fair. To say that because someone is “rich” they should pay a disproportionate share is not “fair”. $127,200 does not make someone a millionaire, especially in the north east. Its not chicken feed to them.
By the way, I am 66 and currently receiving benefits. So…my “bitcxxxx” is about an inconsistency in how programs are inconsistently administered. If the government wants the system to be solvent long term it should make fundamental changes (for example, raising the retirement age) rather than nickel and dimeing those still working.
mike
ya, who they going to work for? walmart;; maybe!
DrGonzo888
There should be NO CAP! People want more benefits and solvency for the program, then go to your congressman and senators and DEMAND the NO CAP !
Angell G.
To keep ss from dissapear in the near coming years
CJ
social security still does not take into account the medicare parts B and D that come out of our checks and thus any small increase gets eaten up by medicare taking money out for parts B and D. We paid into Medicare all the years we worked and it is outrageous that now when we collect, more money is taken out of our checks and then we have to pay taxes on the money S.S. gives us every month.
It is disgusting what our government does to us seniors who are living on a fixed income because we don’t work any longer. Such a disgrace to this country and it should be fixed.
GUIDRY
DEAR FRIEND THAT’S BECAUSE THE DO NOTHING CONGRESS ONLY CARES ABOUT IT’S OWN GAINES ( CONSERVATIVES )
DrGonzo888
Part B is accounted for and your check can not be reduced due to a part B increase. ( Hold Harmless provision on ssa.gov ) Part D , however, is a choice. Plus you may qualify for subsidized help if you are in dire straights.
I wish the private sector had a Hold Harmless provision when I worked, many a years passed that my health insurance increased far beyond any raise I was due. Guess a lot of people on here were either really lucky, or just blind to what they were earning when working
Barbara
Hold harmless is a joke. My cola was translated over to the exact amount of my medicare partB increase….so bottom line I got no increase.
Carolyn
Mine too. Increase was the exact amount of the raise. A whopping $5.00.
They should be ashamed to even have given a lousy .3 per cent.
Marc P.
Stop voting for Republicans, duh. They have controlled Congress for 16 years, duh. Congress decides whether you get a COLA, it’s your vote that decides.
Rear
I TRUST GOD FOR WHATEVER THE SYSTEM DO MY HOUSEHOLD IS LACKING IN NOTHING…
mike
if your house hold isnt lacking, it isnt god that put it there