Earnings limits for SSA benefits won’t change in 2016

Editor’s note: On November 2, the Bipartisan Budget Act of 2015 (formally the House Budget Bill addressed in this column) was signed into law.

The law change didn’t come as a surprise to McHale, as it has been discussed by the Obama administration since late 2013, and there are more important changes for retirees to worry about when it comes to Social Security benefits next year, he said. Our retiring seniors deserve the dignity of a reasonably funded retirement, receiving the Social Security benefits which were promised… “He files and suspends his benefit now, before the window closes, but nothing further happens for two years”. As a result, more women are paying into Social Security and qualifying for their own retirement benefits. Most often, couples will benefit if the higher-benefit spouse delays filing to earn delayed credits. And one married partner will not be able to claim the spousal benefit unless the other is collecting Social Security as well (as opposed to filing to trigger the spousal benefit and then suspending collection of their own benefit). So the higher the CPI, the larger a recipient’s monthly Social Security benefits will be.

Under the new rules, this strategy will no longer work. Social Security benefits for current retirees are also increased annually by the CPI. While the ability to suspend benefits is not disappearing altogether, it seems obvious that lawmakers only want filers to make the election if there is a material change to their situation after submitting their Social Security application.

Even active duty military who continue to receive pay while in a hospital or on medical leave should consider applying for disability benefits if they’re unable to work due to a disabling condition. Single individuals who reach full retirement age and file an application by April 29, 2016 can also benefit from use of the strategy. Today there are 15 states that participate exclusively in their own state-run pension plans for their public employees instead of Social Security. Potential Medicare coverage is dependent on several factors and usually starts after you receive disability cash benefits for 24 months. The other 90 percent collected lower benefits than the law allowed.

Last week’s budget deal diverted funds from Social Security’s retirement program to help plug the disability gap until 2022.

Q: Will the amount I can earn before my Social Security retirement is reduced change in 2016? For someone barely scraping by on a $1,250 Social Security check each month, $581 would cover nearly three months of groceries, or a year’s worth of out-of-pocket costs for a Medicare beneficiary’s prescription drugs. That’s a lot of money. Probably not. As Taylor Swift eloquently puts it, “Band-Aids don’t fix bullet holes”. But loopholes – usually the unintended consequences of poorly drafted legislation – are a disservice to most taxpayers, because most taxpayers don’t know about them, yet indirectly pay for them as a cost their government must absorb. Q: What exactly is changing under the clampdown?

For instance, Laurence Kotlikoff, an economics professor at Boston University and director of the Fiscal Analysis Center, has suggested that the rule change could lead to a spike in divorce rates in the next few years. His wife, if 62 or over, can then file and claim half of the husband’s benefit. Meyer, for example, said many one-earner couples will now be better off claiming benefits as soon as the non-earning spouse turns full retirement age. Even someone with the purest of intentions may suffer from the updated rules. For instance, a filer who might have preferred to wait to collect benefits until age 70 will now face the choice of taking the benefit earlier or being unable to offer auxiliary benefits to family members who may have planned on them. This new rule applies to anyone who suspends more than 6 months after enactment of the bill.

You can file online for Social Security retirement, just for Medicare or for both retirement and Medicare.

Dear Senior Living Adviser, I’m a retired 65-year-old man who is not eligible for Social Security retirement benefits based on my work record. For starters, there’s no doubt that reforms have to be made given Social Security’s long-term solvency issue. “Through good times and bad, Social Security has paid out every benefit owed to every eligible American”, Sanders said.