Monthly Social Security and Supplemental Security Income
benefits for more than 54 million Americans will increase
2.3 percent in 2008, 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 2.3 percent.
The 2.3 percent Cost-of-Living Adjustment (COLA) will begin
with benefits that nearly 50 million Social Security beneficiaries
receive in January 2008. Increased payments to more
than 7 million Supplemental Security Income beneficiaries
will begin on December 31.
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
$102,000 from $97,500. Of the estimated 164 million
workers who will pay Social Security taxes in 2008, nearly
12 million will pay higher taxes as a result of the increase
in the taxable maximum.
Information about Medicare changes for 2008 can be found
at www.cms.hhs.gov. |
