If you have parents or relatives that get Social Security, this is what they can look forward to next year.
Social Security checks for nearly 49 million Americans are going up by 3.3 percent next year, which will mean an extra $33 per month in the average check, the government announced Wednesday.
The number is consistent with historical figures, but I can see the headlines now.
The number is less than last year, but...
The 3.3 percent increase compares to a 4.1 percent rise in monthly benefits for 2006, which had been the biggest increase in 15 years. Starting in 1975, the benefit payments have been adjusted each year to keep up with inflation.
I fear someone, somewhere (my beloved blogosphere?) will try to spin this as some sort of cut, but it's obviously not.
The cost of living adjustment announced Wednesday by the Social Security Administration will go to more than 53 million people. Nearly 49 million receive Social Security benefits and the rest Supplemental Security Income payments aimed at the poor.
Some other numbers of interest.
The cost of living adjustment means that the monthly benefit for the typical retired worker in 2007 will go from $1,011 currently to $1,044 next year.
Let's see, 49 million social security recipients, a thousand dollars a month (for a typical worker, whatever that is) comes to $49 billion dollars a month, or $588 billion dollars a year. That's just unfathomable.
The $33 per month average monthly increase for Social Security retirees in 2007 compares to a $39 rise for 2006.
However, much of the 2006 gain was eaten up by a $10.30 monthly increase in the payments retirees had to make for Medicare Part B insurance that pays for their doctors’ visits and outpatient hospital care. This year, that premium increase is a smaller $5, driving the total premium to $93.50.
So be careful if you don't examine all the numbers. If both your income and your expenses increase, you're not farther ahead. But there is a curious fact I found.
The wealthiest Medicare recipients will see much larger increases as part of changes to the law passed in 2003 when the drug care benefit was adopted.
The higher payments will apply to about 1.5 million beneficiaries with incomes of more than $80,000 annually. Many in this group will see their monthly premiums for doctors’ visits rise to $106. The premium could go as high as $162 for the very wealthiest.
I'm confused a bit by this. So what they're saying is that there are people making over $80,00 a year who are still getting Medicare? Is it just me, or does that not seem to make sense. Would you be asking for Medicare if you were making that much? I'm sure there's probably some extraordinary exceptions, but that doesn't seem to make a whole lot of sense to me.
But again, we're talking about the economy of government. That explains alot.
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