Women also tend to take their benefits sooner than men - before reaching the age for full un-reduced retirement benefits. When retiring before full retirement age, benefits are permanently reduced by up to 25% to 30%, depending on age..The income thresholds that subject up to 50 percent of Social Security benefits to tax start at provisional incomes of ,000 and ,000. A second tier taxes up to 85% of benefits when individual provisional income exceeds ,000, and joint exceeds ,000. If the thresholds were adjusted to today's dollars the ,000 threshold would be about ,107 and the ,000 would be about ,097 according an analysis for TSCL..The news media has me confused regarding what is included in the CPI. I understand, according to the media, that the CPI does not include food or fuel. I wondered how that could be since they would be two of the largest items in the CPI?.If adopted, H.R. 2787 would mandate the monthly formulation and publication of a consumer price index specifically for senior citizens for the purpose of establishing an accurate Social Security COLA for beneficiaries..Illegal immigrants get jobs using counterfeit, invalid, and stolen Social Security numbers that employers use to withhold payroll taxes and report earnings to the Social Security Administration. Immigration advocates argue that unauthorized workers have little chance of collecting benefits. But once illegal workers gain a valid Social Security that changes. Social Security Administration policy allows noncitizens who have evidence of earnings, even for jobs worked under invalid Social Security numbers, to claim and reinstate those earnings for use in determining entitlement once they obtain their own Social Security number. The earnings are then used to determine the initial retirement benefit amount..Over the years, TSCL surveys indicate that older Americans overwhelmingly oppose totally replacing Medicare with a system of private insurance plans. On the other hand, the design of traditional Medicare alone has a considerably high level of out-of-pocket spending, and no annual out-of-pocket limit. That leaves an important role for private insurers to fill in the gap with Medigap supplements or Medicare Advantage plans..The survey found that a person having the national average Social Security benefit in 2000 - 6 per month - would have ,169.80 per month by 2016 due to COLA increases. However, because retiree costs are rising at a substantially faster pace than the COLA, that individual would require a Social Security benefit of ,517.80 per month in 2017 just to maintain his or her 2000 level of buying power..Your benefits would drop further as rising Medicare costs take a bigger portion of Social Security payments. This is already occurring even under current law, but the problem would be accelerated if Social Security benefits grow more slowly, and if Medicare cuts make seniors pay more for their healthcare..American consumers have waited too long for Congress to finally make bipartisan progress on lowering prescription drug costs. At a time of rampant hyper-partisanship on Capitol Hill, I've seen glimmers of hope for how lawmakers from across the political spectrum can unite on this issue. We can't stop pushing for lower prices, because our nation's seniors deserve that level of respect, commitment, and urgency.
