Social Security Benefits to Go Up 1.7% in 2015

Dec. 1, 2014

WASHINGTON, D.C. – The Social Security Administration has announced that monthly Social Security and Supplemental Security Income benefits for nearly 64 million Americans will increase 1.7 percent in the new year.

That’s about $22 a month for the average recipient. In 2015, the average worker will receive $1,328 a month, or $15,936 a year, according to the Social Security Administration.

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 Dec. 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.

2015’s annual cost of living increase is up from 1.5 percent this year, but still less than 2012’s increase of 3.6 percent. Seniors received no increases to their benefits for two years prior as prices fell due to the recession.