The great columnist Tom Margenau has published his annual article about updates to Social Security laws. Please read his column. Here are the opening paragraphs:
It has been my custom for most of the past 21 years to write a year-end column that summarizes the Social Security changes and updates scheduled to take place the following year.
Almost all Social Security beneficiaries are familiar with the most popular and publicized upcoming change: the increase in monthly benefit checks for 2019 due to the automated cost-of-living adjustment, or COLA. In fact, Social Security recipients have probably already received a letter from the Social Security Administration telling them of the expected increase. My wife and I got our notices.
All Social Security checks are going up 2.8 percent in 2019. The COLA is based on something called the Consumer Price Index for Urban Wage Earners and Clerical Workers. This is the official measuring stick SSA has used to determine COLAs for the past 45 years. If you want to learn more about this measure, check out the website of the folks who maintain it: the Bureau of Labor Statistics. You’ll find them at www.bls.gov.
Due to these increases, the average monthly retirement check will be $1,461 in 2019, a $39 increase from the 2018 level. The maximum Social Security check for a worker retiring at age 66 next year will be $2,861, compared to $2,788 in 2018. And please note that $2,861 is the maximum for someone turning 66 next year. That does not mean it is the maximum Social Security payment anyone can receive. There are millions of Social Security beneficiaries who get much more than that, primarily because they work well past age 66, and/or delay starting their benefits until age 70.
Although this is a Social Security column, I must mention the upcoming increase in the Medicare Part B premium, which is deducted from Social Security checks for most people. In 2019, the basic Part B premium will be $135.50, a $1.50 increase from the 2018 rate. A few people will pay less than that because of the muddled mess involving the so-called hold harmless provisions of the law that I’ve discussed many times. And wealthy people will pay more than the basic premium — as much as $460.50 per month for the richest Americans.
