Some changes are coming to Social Security in 2025. People who get the benefit now and in the future should know about these changes so they can get ready for the year ahead. In 2025, the program will be different in seven ways:
1 Cost-of-living adjustment
The cost-of-living increase (COLA) that Social Security recipients will get in 2025 will be 2.5%, down from 3.2% in 2024. This is because inflation is still going down. The Social Security Administration (SSA) says that starting in January, the average retirement income will go up by $49 per month, from $1,927 to $1,946.
This is the smallest COLA in four years, which means that inflation is back to how it was before the pandemic.
The average yearly COLA has been about 2.6% since 2000, even though it went up a lot in 2022 and 2023 because of rising prices. The COLA affects all Social Security payouts, such as retirement, survivor, family, and disability benefits.
It also affects Supplemental Security Income (SSI), which helps low-income people aged 65 or older who are blind or disabled. There is a list of the usual benefits and the rise below.
| Beneficiary | Before 2.5% COLA | After 2.5% COLA |
| Retired worker | $1,927 | $1,976 |
| Married couple, both receiving benefits | $3,014 | $3,089 |
| Survivor benefit, older spouse | $1,788 | $1,832 |
| Survivor benefits, widowed parent and two qualifying children | $3,669 | $3,761 |
| Worker receiving disability benefits | $1,542 | $1,580 |
| SSI maximum federal benefit, individual* | $943 | $967 |
| SSI maximum federal benefit, married couple* | $1,415 | $1,450 |
2. Costs for Medicare
The standard monthly payment for Medicare Part B, which covers doctor visits and other outpatient care, is going up from $174.70 to $185 in January. This is bad news for people whose COLA is very low. The extra $10.30 a month will help many people handle the COLA rise much better.
3. Service at places for Social Security
Since the end of the pandemic, the SSA has suggested that people who need help call ahead and make an appointment to avoid crowds. Starting in 2025, this suggestion will be required.
There was a message on the SSA website and in an email sent to campaign groups on November 13 from Dawn Bystry, who is an associate commissioner in the Office of Strategic and Digital Communications.
“Starting January 6, customers will need to make an appointment for service in our field offices,” this includes asking for Social Security cards.
Its goal is to “reduce wait times, streamline service delivery, and improve the overall customer experience” at its more than 1,200 field offices. The offices that have already put it into action have already seen improvements.
However, walk-ins will not be turned away; making an appointment will keep people from having to wait for hours with no end in sight, as Bystry continues, “offices will not turn people away for help who can’t make an appointment or don’t want to make an appointment”.
People from vulnerable groups, the military, people with terminal illnesses, and people in other situations that need rapid or specialised care can still walk into our field offices and ask for help.
4. Full age to retire
When you reach full retirement age (FRA), you can get your full Social Security retirement benefit, which is based on how much you have earned over your career. Over time, FRA has gone up by two months for every birth year.
It’s 66 years and 8 months for people born in 1958 and 66 years and 10 months for people born in 1959. In 2025, people born on May 2, 1958, or February 28, 1959, will be FRA. As things stand, FRA will end at age 67 for people born after 1960.
You can start getting benefits as early as age 62, but your payments will be cut by up to 30% for good. Delaying benefits past FRA, on the other hand, raises your payment by 8% each year until you reach age 70, when you can claim the most benefits.
5. Paying into Social Security
Most workers pay a 12.4% tax on their wages to pay for Social Security. Employees pay 6.2% into FICA through payroll deductions, which are matched by their bosses. Self-employed people pay the full 12.4% on their tax returns.
This tax rate hasn’t changed since 1990, but the amount of income that is taxed changes every year based on changes in the national average wage. In 2025, the most money that will be taxed will be $176,100, up from $168,600 in 2024. Income over this amount and gains from investments are not taxed by Social Security.
6. Test of wages for Social Security
People who get retirement, survivor, or family benefits from Social Security and work before they hit full retirement age (FRA) are subject to an earnings test. People who aren’t yet at FRA will have $1 taken out of their benefits for every $2 they make over $23,400 in 2025.
This is an increase from 2024, when the amount taken out was $22,320. For example, if you made $40,000 in 2025, your benefits would go down by $8,300, which is half of the extra money you made over the limit.
When a beneficiary hits FRA, the earnings test is less strict. Up from $59,520 in 2024, $1 for every $3 earned above $62,160 is taken out until the month FRA is reached.
Once you hit FRA, there is no limit on how much you can earn, and the benefits that were withheld are slowly restored through monthly payments that are adjusted.
Different salary rules apply to Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI). In 2025, the most a person can earn each month is $1,620. For blind recipients, it goes up to $2,700. If you make more than these amounts, your SSDI payments could be at risk.
7. Being eligible for benefits
The lowest number of credits needed to get benefits is still 40, and you can still earn up to 4 credits a year. This means that after 10 years, most workers hit the minimum requirement. The amount of money you need to make to get a credit changes. In 2025, it’s $1,810, which means you need to make at least $7,240 in a year.