By Kirk Larson
Social Security Washington Public Affairs Specialist
Happy New Year from Social Security! Put down the champagne and ring in the New Year with a COLA! And we don’t mean the soda. In 2015, nearly 64 million Americans who receive Social Security or Supplemental Security Income (SSI) will receive a cost-of-living adjustment (COLA) increase to their monthly benefit payments of 1.7 percent.
The average monthly Social Security benefit for a retired worker in 2015 is $1,328. The average monthly Social Security benefit for a disabled worker in 2015 is $1,165. The State of Washington the average payment is a little higher at $1,398 for a retired worker and $1.168 for a disabled worker.
For people who receive SSI, the maximum federal payment amount increased to $733 (up from $721 in 2014).
Other Social Security changes in 2015 are also worth noting. For example, the maximum amount of earnings subject to the Social Security payroll tax will increase to $118,500 (up from $117,000 in 2014). A worker will earn one credit toward Social Security coverage after paying taxes on $1,220 in earnings in 2015 (up from $1,200 in 2014). As a reminder, eligibility for retirement benefits still requires 40 credits (usually about10 years of work).
Information about Medicare changes for 2015 is available at http://www.medicare.gov.
The Social Security Act outlines how the COLA is calculated. To read more about the COLA, please visit http://www.socialsecurity.gov/cola.
To learn more about your own Social Security benefits visit http://www.socialsecurity.gov/myaccount/ – Over 15 million people have already created their own online account.
