The Cost of living adjustment is on its way….
It’s gonna be about 3.2%….
Every year the agency adjusts its benefits, based on inflation. The 2024 Social Security cost of living increase — or COLA — is to be announced on Thursday.
The program pays roughly $1.4 trillion in benefits to more than 71 million people each year, including low-income individuals with disabilities.
Charles Blahous, a former Social Security trustee, said the annual COLA announcement is a reminder about the program’s stressed finances. “This is an important system, and we need to restore its solvency, because if lawmakers can’t do that, then Social Security and its basic financing design would have to be abandoned,” he said.
The annual Social Security and Medicare trustees report released in March said the program’s trust fund will be unable to pay full benefits beginning in 2033. If the trust fund is depleted, the government will be able to pay only 77% of scheduled benefits, the report said….
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Social Security is financed by payroll taxes collected from workers and their employers. The maximum amount of earnings subject to Social Security payroll taxes for 2023 is $160,200, up from $147,000 in 2022.
There have been legislative proposals to shore up Social Security, but they have not made it past committee hearings.
Jo Ann Jenkins, CEO of the AARP, said the organization “is urging Congress to work in a bipartisan way to keep Social Security strong and to provide American workers and retirees with a long-term solution that both current and future retirees can count on.”
“Americans work hard to earn their Social Security, and it’s only fair for them to get the money they deserve.”….