Inflation And Social Security Disability Recipients

     From The Bulletin on Retirement and Disability:

... Social Security Disability (SSD) program beneficiaries, like other consumers, have been negatively affected by inflation over the past several years. In a survey from June of 2023, more than half (59 percent) of SSD program beneficiaries reported higher prices for the disability-related goods and services they need to purchase, and more than one-quarter reported reducing food spending to cover disability-related costs, Zachary Morris and Stephanie Rennane found in Examining the Impact of Inflation on the Economic Security of Disability Program Beneficiaries (NBER RDRC Paper NB23-08).

Using new survey data, the researchers found that 82 percent of beneficiaries reported out-of-pocket expenses related to their disability, with average annual spending of $4,412 and median spending of $384 as of June 2023. Fifty-nine percent of beneficiaries reported higher spending on disability-related goods and services compared to two years earlier. In response to these rising costs, 25 percent of beneficiaries indicated they went into debt; 43 percent found recent COLA adjustments insufficient to maintain their standard of living. ...

2.5% COLA

      The Cost Of Living Adjustment (COLA) effective for 2025 is 2.5%.

COLA Prediction

     One expert is predicting a 2.6% Cost Of Living Adjustment (COLA) in Social Security benefits this year. We'll know in a couple of months.

Attorney Fee Cap To Go To $9,200 This Fall And Be Indexed

     From a press release:

The Social Security Administration (SSA) plans to raise the fee cap for claimants’ representatives, from $7,200 to $9,200, when they and their client agree to use what is known as a “fee agreement process.” This will be the first increase to the fee agreement cap since November 2022, when the cap went up from $6,000 to $7,200, after remaining the same for thirteen years.

The fee cap increase is scheduled to take effect this Fall. The agency also plans to tie future increases to the annual cost-of-living adjustment (COLA). SSA will publish notice of this change in the Federal Register in April in advance of the effective date. ...

Republican Presidential Candidates Call For Means-Testing Social Security -- And More

     At last night's Republican Presidential debate candidate Chris Christie called for means-testing Title II Social Security benefits, comparing them to Food Stamps. He also wanted to increase full retirement age, although he didn't specify how high he wanted to go. In addition, his challenger, Nikki Haley urged changes in cost of living adjustments.

    As someone once said, "A program for poor people is a poor program." (By the way, who said that? I don't remember.)

User Fee Up To $117 In 2024

     The user fee, which amounts to a tax, on attorneys who represent Social Security claimants will be $117 per case for 2024.

This Year's COLA Is 3.2%

    As expected, this year's Cost Of Living Adjustment (COLA) is 3.2%.

This Year's COLA To Be Around 3%

     The New York Times reports that current projections are that this year's Cost Of Living Adjustment (COLA) for Social Security benefits will be around 3%, down from last year's 8.7%.

Probably No Big COLA This Year

     From CBS:

Seniors and millions of others on Social Security get an annual cost-of-living adjustment (or COLA) that's geared toward aligning their monthly checks with inflation. Next year, that COLA could be 3% — or even lower — based on recent inflationary trends, according to an early estimate from the Senior Citizens League. 

The estimate is based on the 12-month average rate for the Consumer Price Index for Urban Wage Earners and Clerical Workers (CPI-W), a basket of goods and services typically bought by workers, according to Mary Johnson, the Social Security and Medicare policy analyst at the Senior Citizens League.  ...

More COLA Numbers

     Social Security has published its complete Cost Of Living Adjustments. There's more than individual COLA adjustments to be computed. Here's some key numbers for 2023:

• Attorney user fee: $113
• FICA wage base: $160,200
• Quarter of coverage amount: $1,640
• Substantial gainful activity amount (non-blind): $1,470
• Trial work period threshold: $1,050
  

8.7% COLA

     This year's Cost Of Living Adjustment (COLA) to Social Security benefits is 8.7%.

2022 COLA Predicted To Be 8.7%

     The best current prediction is that this year's Social Security Cost Of Living Adjustment (COLA) will be 8.7%. The official announcement will come on October 13.

9.6% COLA?

     The Senior Citizens League is now estimating that Social Security's cost of living adjustment for this year will be 9.6%.

What Will The COLA Be This Year?

     It's that time of year when publications start trying to estimate the Cost of Living Adjustment (COLA) for Social Security benefits. Forbes is giving itself plenty of wiggle room by estimating it at 8.6% to 10.5%. Even the low figure is high. The upper figure is alarming.

    Obviously, the COLA is crucial for recipients of Social Security benefits but inflation that high has serious implications for Social Security's administrative budget, Social Security employees who won't receive a COLA anywhere near this great and Social Security attorneys who are subject to a fee cap that isn't indexed for inflation.

COLA Deteminations, Including Max User Fee

      Social Security has posted all of it cost of living adjustments in the Federal Register.

     Among other things, the maximum user fee for attorneys representing claimants goes up to $104 next year. Of course, there is no increase in the maximum fee that attorneys can charge.

     I've noticed over the years that Republicans in Congress seem to think that federal domestic agencies are infinitely wasteful. They believe that operating budgets can be cut and cut without any effect upon the public. There seems to be a parallel attitude by Social Security management. Allowing the fees that attorneys can charge to represent claimants to keep going down by not adjusting for inflation can't possibly have any effect on the public. Attorneys are infinitely inefficient and infinitely wealthy. They can absorb anything.

5.9% COLA

      The Cost Of Living Adjustment (COLA) for Social Security benefits effective next year is 5.9%, slightly lower than had been anticipated, but still the highest in many years.

COLA Projection

     The Social Security cost of living adjustment announcement is coming up next month. Here’s a prediction that it will come in at 6% or 6.1%.

Some COLA History

Click on image to view full size

 

From the Center for Retirement Research at Boston College

COLA Will Be High This Year

      Already, we're getting projections of what the Cost Of Living Adjustment (COLA) will be for Social Security this year. It's clear it will be far higher than what we're used to. The Kiplinger Letter is predicting it will be 6.3%. I don't know that they should be but Social Security recipients always seem happy to see large COLAs even though their purchasing power hasn't really increased.

Attorney User Fee Goes To $98 Beginning In December

      Social Security earlier announced the 1.3% COLA (Cost of Living Adjustment) for benefits for 2021. Tomorrow the agency will publish a more complete notice about all of the COLA adjustments in the Federal Register tomorrow. Perhaps the item on that list that will attract the most attention, at least from one group, is the increase in the maximum user fee charged to attorneys and others who represent claimants before the agency. That amount goes up to $98 beginning in December. The user fee is deducted from the fees that the attorneys receive. 

     Of course, no adjustment was made in the maximum fee that attorneys may charge their clients under the fee agreement process. My understanding of Social Security's position on that is that they will consider raising that amount once it is reliably reported to them that representation has disappeared. We may be in a situation comparable to that which once existed for representation of veterans. In 1864 Congress passed a $10 cap on attorney fees for attorney representation in veterans benefits matters. That may have been reasonable at the time. However, no adjustment was made in that cap for 120 years! That cap protected veterans so well that attorney representation in veterans benefits cases disappeared apart from pro bono representation. I imagine that there are those at Social Security who would be happy to see the same thing happen at Social Security.