Social Security update: Four projected changes to Social Security before 2025

There are the many changes to Social Security that retirees can expect over the next two years, and they include higher benefits and better customer service.

The Social Security Administration released its “Vision 2025” plan this year, highlighting its 80-year history and laying out its projects for the next two years.

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Here are four changes to Social Security that retirees can expect:

1. Higher Maximum benefits:

The maximum benefit that retirees receive at full retirement age is adjusted for inflation. The most recent increase occurred for 2023 when it increased from $3,345 in 2022 to $3,627 in 2023. Based on current inflation, another increase is expected before 2025,

The maximum amount of money each beneficiary will receive varies depending on their retirement age. Recipients who retire at 62 will receive monthly installments of up to $2,572. Those who retire at 67 receive the maximum benefit of $3,627, and people who delay retirement until 70 get the maximum payment of up to $4,555 per month, according to the SSA.

Not all beneficiaries will receive the maximum payment, which also depends on the length of time they have been paying into Social Security and the amount of money paid into the program over the years.

2. Change in monthly income due to increase in Cost of Living

The cost-of-living adjustment will increase the monthly benefits that retirees receive each year based on the consumer price index for urban wage earners and clerical workers. In 2024, the increase is expected to be 2.7%, according to the May 2023 consumer price index report, released last month. By comparison, last year’s COLA was an 8.7% increase.

There are two changes coming before the 2025 payments, making it difficult to say how much beneficiaries can expect to see. The first increase will be released in October, and the second will come a year later. The final determination is based on the average inflation rate and CPI-W in the months of the third quarter of the year: July, August, and September.

3. Better customer service

The SSA says it plans to improve its customer service experience by employing “unique” workers and by accommodating its recipients through any means of communication necessary. For example, customers can choose when, where, and how they receive services.

“By 2025, we are focused on understanding the customer experience in their lives,” SSA said on its website. “Through this understanding, we respond and anticipate the needs of our customers, and thoughtfully make appropriate service choices.”

The SSA said it also plans to make beneficiary interactions with the agency more “personalized” based on individual “needs, preferences, and relationships” with Social Security.

4. A change for women receiving benefits

Because of the increasing female workforce, more women are expected to receive their own retirement benefits by 2025 rather than just receiving payments from their spouse’s benefits.

SSA projects that more than half of women over the age of 60 will receive benefits based solely on their own work by 2025. This number is expected to increase to 70% by 2095, the administration said. It also predicts that more than one-third of women will have dual rights to benefits based on their own work and that of their spouse by 2025. The number is expected to drop to a quarter by 2095.

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Although these changes are expected to take place by 2025, there is still much up in the air when it comes to the future of Social Security. Discussions about the future of the program have been going on in Congress for years, and experts have warned that the program could be unresolved for 10 years if nothing is done.

If no funding for the program is resolved by 2033, the program’s trust money is expected to run out. This means that recipients will see a reduction in their payments.