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Social Security


BIGGEST SOCIAL SECURITY CHANGES FOR 2025


MONTHLY PAYMENTS ARE GOING UP, AND DROP-IN SERVICE AT SSA OFFICES IS LARGELY
GOING AWAY

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

By

Andy Markowitz,

 
AARP

178 Comments
Published December 04, 2024
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The cost-of-living adjustment (COLA) may be the most widely anticipated way
Social Security changes from year to year, but it’s far from the only one.
Inflation, wage trends and new policies directly affect not just the more than
68 million people receiving Social Security benefits but also the estimated 184
million workers (and future beneficiaries) paying into the system. 



Here are seven important ways Social Security will be different in 2025.

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1. COST-OF-LIVING ADJUSTMENT



Inflation continued to cool this year , resulting in a 2.5 percent COLA for
2025 for people receiving Social Security payments, down from 3.2 percent in
2024. The estimated average retirement benefit will increase by $49 a month,
from $1,927 to $1,976, starting in January, according to the Social Security
Administration (SSA).



It’s the lowest COLA in four years,  reflecting a return to pre-pandemic
inflation trends. The average COLA since 2000 has been about 2.6 percent, even
factoring in the spike in consumer prices that produced benefit increases of 5.9
percent in 2022 and 8.7 percent in 2023.



The COLA is applied to all Social Security payments — survivor benefits, family
benefits and disability benefits, as well as retirement benefits — and to
Supplemental Security Income (SSI), a monthly benefit administered by the SSA
for people with low incomes and limited assets who are 65 or older, blind or
have a disability.

  


2. MEDICARE PREMIUMS



The standard monthly premium for Medicare Part B, which covers doctor visits and
other outpatient treatment, goes up from $174.70 to $185 in January. Most
Medicare enrollees pay this standard rate, typically as a deduction from their
Social Security payments, so the premium increase has the effect of partially
offsetting the COLA, by $10.30 a month.




3. SERVICE AT SOCIAL SECURITY OFFICES



Since April 2022, when local Social Security offices reopened after two years of
pandemic restrictions, the SSA has been recommending customers seeking in-person
help call ahead rather than dropping in. In 2025, that recommendation becomes a
requirement in most situations.




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Starting Jan. 6, “we will require customers to schedule an appointment for
service in our field offices, including requests for Social Security cards,”
Dawn Bystry, SSA associate commissioner in the Office of Strategic and Digital
Communications, wrote in a Nov. 13 message emailed to advocacy groups and posted
on the agency’s website.



The aim is to “reduce wait times, streamline service delivery and improve the
overall customer experience” at its 1,200-plus field offices, Bystry said,
adding that several hundred offices have already made the transition and “seen
significant improvements in wait times.”

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To schedule an office visit, call the SSA’s national help line at 800-772-1213
or contact your local office. You can also access many SSA services online, if
you have a My Social Security account, or by phone.



The appointment edict is not absolute. Bystry said offices “will not turn people
away for service who are unable to make an appointment or do not want to make an
appointment. For example, members of vulnerable populations, military personnel,
people with terminal illnesses and individuals with other situations requiring
immediate or specialized attention may still walk in for service at our field
offices.”




4. FULL RETIREMENT AGE



Full retirement age, or FRA, is the age at which you become eligible to claim
100 percent of the retirement benefit calculated from your lifetime earnings.
For the past several years it has been going up two months at a time, based on
year of birth.

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FRA is 66 years and 8 months for people born in 1958 and 66 and 10 months for
those born in 1959; people born May 2, 1958, through Feb. 28, 1959, will reach
it in 2025. (Under current law, it will settle at 67 for people born in 1960 and
afterward.)



You can start collecting retirement benefits before FRA — the minimum age is 62
— but your monthly payment will be permanently reduced, by as much as 30
percent.  You can also wait past FRA and reap Social Security's bonus for
delaying benefits: an extra 8 percent a year until age 70, when you can claim
your maximum benefit.




5. SOCIAL SECURITY TAXES



Social Security is primarily funded by a 12.4 percent tax on most workers’
earnings. If you earn wages, you pay 6.2 percent (through FICA withholding from
your paycheck) and your employer pays 6.2 percent. Self-employed people pay both
shares as part of their annual tax return.



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The rate has not changed since 1990, but the amount of income subject to it is
adjusted annually to reflect national wage trends. In 2025, you’ll pay the tax
on work income up to $176,100 (up from $168,600 in 2024). Earnings above that
threshold are not taxed for the purpose of funding Social Security, nor is any
income from investments.




6. SOCIAL SECURITY EARNINGS TEST



Social Security applies an earnings test to beneficiaries who have not yet
reached full retirement age. People who collect retirement, survivor or family
benefits before reaching that milestone and continue to work may temporarily
lose a share of their Social Security benefits if their earnings exceed a
certain level.



That threshold changes annually, tracking wage trends. In 2025, beneficiaries
who will not reach FRA until a later year have $1 withheld from their Social
Security payment for every $2 in work income above $23,400 (up from $22,320 in
2024). For example, if you earn $40,000 from work in 2025, your benefits for the
year would be reduced by $8,300 — half the difference between $23,400 and
$40,000.



The earnings test eases in the year you reach FRA: Social Security holds back $1
in benefits for every $3 in earnings above $62,160 (up from $59,520 in 2024)
until the month when you hit the milestone. At that point, the test goes away:
There’s no longer any benefit deduction, no matter how much you earn, and the
SSA adjusts your monthly payment upward so that, over time, you recoup the prior
withholding.



There are different income rules for people receiving Social Security Disability
Insurance (SSDI). Because disability benefits are intended for people who are
largely unable to work for an extended period due to a serious medical
condition, you can lose them if your earnings reflect what the SSA calls
“substantial gainful activity.”



In 2025, that threshold is $1,620 a month for most SSDI beneficiaries, a $70
increase from 2024. People receiving SSDI on the basis of blindness are subject
to a higher income limit: $2,700 a month in 2025, $110 more than in 2024.




7. QUALIFYING FOR BENEFITS



The first step in qualifying for Social Security retirement benefits is having
at least 40 Social Security credits. You earn credits, or “quarters of coverage”
in SSA parlance, by doing work in which you pay Social Security taxes on your
income. You can earn up to four credits a year, so most workers reach the
eligibility threshold after 10 years in the labor force.



In 2025, you earn one credit for earnings of $1,810 ($80 more than the 2024
level), so you bank your maximum of four credits when your work income for the
year reaches $7,240.


%{postComment}%

Andy Markowitz is an AARP senior writer and editor covering Social Security and
retirement. He is a former editor of the Prague Post and Baltimore City Paper.

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