SOCIAL SECURITY
News Release
Social Security Announces 2.7 Percent Benefit
Increase for 2005
Monthly Social Security and Supplemental Security Income benefits for
more than 52 million Americans will increase 2.7 percent in 2005, the
Social Security Administration announced today.
Social Security and Supplemental Security Income benefits increase
automatically each year based on the rise in the Bureau of Labor Statistics'
Consumer Price Index for Urban Wage Earners and Clerical Workers (CPI-W),
from the third quarter of the prior year to the corresponding period
of the current year. This year's increase in the CPI-W was 2.7 percent.
The 2.7 percent Cost-of-Living Adjustment (COLA) will begin with benefits
that more than 47 million Social Security beneficiaries receive in January
2005. Increased payments to 7 million Supplemental Security Income beneficiaries
will begin on December 30.
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 $90,000 from $87,900. Of the estimated 159 million
workers who will pay Social Security taxes in 2005, about 9.9 million
will pay higher taxes as a result of the increase in the taxable maximum
in 2005.
It is important to note that no one's Social Security benefit
will decrease as a result of the 2005 Medicare Part B premium increase,
announced last month. By law, the Part B premium increase cannot be
larger than a beneficiary's COLA increase. Information about Medicare
changes for 2005 can be found at www.hhs.gov
– The Internet site for the Department of Health and Human Services.
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NOTE TO CORRESPONDENTS: A fact
sheet showing the effect of the various automatic adjustments is
attached.
Note: Copies of most SSA press
releases, as well as other Social Security information and statistics,
are available at SSA’s Internet site, Social Security Online,
at http://www.socialsecurity.gov.
Also look there for information on subscribing to SSA’s
free electronic newsletter, Social Security eNews.
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