Posted on 10/09/2024 10:21:23 AM PDT by Tell It Right
About 70.6 million Social Security recipients are expected to receive a smaller cost of living increase for 2025 than in recent years, as inflation has moderated. The Social Security Administration makes the official COLA announcement Thursday, and analysts predicted in advance it would be 2.5% for 2025. Recipients received a 3.2% increase in their benefits in 2024, after a historically large 8.7% benefit increase in 2023, brought on by record 40-year-high inflation.
(Excerpt) Read more at breitbart.com ...
Therein lies the rub. CPI is the fake inflation index that, IIRC, excludes food, housing, and energy costs.
I wish they would fix the taxable portion of SS. I know Trump has said he would want to eliminate Federal income taxes on SS. Short of that, the income levels at which SS becomes taxable haven’t been adjusted for inflation, AFAIK.
Hot Dang! I’m going canned Gravy Train as of 1/1!
IF 2.5% is correct-—
That will not equal 1/2 tank of gas in my station wagon.
Well, retirees don't need food, housing or energy, so it's all good!
Inflation is a tax on the middle class. If you’re a retired person surviving on SS (like me), you’re sunk.
IF 2.5% is correct-—
That will not equal 1/2 tank of gas in my station wagon.
About $444 for the entire year.
And when they get this raise...and SNAP benefits get reduced out of this “raise”.
......and standbye for a Medicare hike.
But we can support illegals. What a joke we’ve become.
I don’t know anything about SNAP but I’m betting that the Part A and B Medicare premium will be adjusted to the exact equal of any raise.
You’ll have to start riding your horse into town....
Part B increases by 5.9%...from $175.00 to $185.00/mo. I never dreamed this would come out of my SS check.
Oh, my! I haven't thought about that. I (not old enough to collect SS) knew about the rules that:
0% of SS is taxed if your income is below $25K ($32K married).
50% of SS is taxed if your income is between $25K to $34K ($32K to $44K married).
85% of SS is taxed if your income is above $35K ($44K married).
What I didn't realize, until you just pointed out, that those numbers have been the same year after year and aren't automatically adjusted for inflation like other things (i.e. Roth IRA contribution limits, 401K contribution limits)
All that gouging going on. /s
This was implemented to tax the “rich”. Now, pretty much everybody ends in this 85% bracket.
No. The BLS publishes thousands of CPI indexes each month, including the headline All Items CPI for All Urban Consumers (CPI-U) and the CPI-U for All Items Less Food and Energy. The latter series, widely referred to as the “core” CPI, is closely watched by many economic analysts and policymakers under the belief that food and energy prices are volatile and are subject to price shocks that cannot be damped through monetary policy. However, all consumer goods and services, including food and energy, are represented in the headline CPI.
“Therein lies the rub. CPI is the fake inflation index that, IIRC, excludes food, housing, and energy costs.”
Most importantly, none of the prominent legislated uses of the CPI excludes food and energy. Social security and federal retirement benefits are updated each year for inflation by the All Items CPI for Urban Wage Earners and Clerical Workers (CPI-W). Individual income tax parameters and Treasury Inflation-Protected Securities (TIPS) returns are based on the All Items CPI-U.1
https://www.bls.gov/cpi/factsheets/common-misconceptions-about-cpi.htm
“Therein lies the rub. CPI is the fake inflation index that, IIRC, excludes food, housing, and energy costs.”
Previous link: Until 1983, the CPI measure of homeowner cost was based largely on house prices. The long-recognized flaw of that approach was that owner-occupied housing combines both consumption and investment elements, and the CPI is designed to exclude investment items. The approach now used in the CPI, called rental equivalence, measures the value of shelter to owner-occupants as the amount they forgo by not renting out their homes.
I care less about the SS-Cola, but eliminating federal income tax on SS benefits will be a huge benefit for me, since 85% of my SS benefits are taxed in my tax bracket.
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