

If you’re on the bubble of moving into a higher bracket, it’s possible that the next Social Security COLA will boost your Medicare premiums down the road. While the rates will be different for next year, it’s likely that the income brackets will remain the same. Income for Married Couples Filing Jointly Below are the income brackets for Medicare Part B and Part D that are effective this year based on annual income in 2020. The Medicare premium rates for 2023 haven’t been announced yet. Both Medicare Part B and Part D premiums are based on annual income, so the COLA could push some Social Security recipients into a higher bracket. Speaking of higher Medicare premiums, some retirees may pay even more for them as a result of next year’s big Social Security increase. Medicare Part B premiums soared 14.5% this year, more than even the highest estimate for the upcoming Social Security increase. Although the CPI-W measures inflation based on the prices of a large basket of goods and services, that basket does not include healthcare costs. Social Security bases them on the changes in the Consumer Price Index for Urban Wage Earners and Clerical Workers (CPI-W). One key reason for that erosion in buying power is the way COLAs are calculated. During this period, COLA increases were given in all but three years. The Senior Citizens League conducted a study that found Social Security benefits have lost a whopping 40% of their buying power since 2000. The ugly secret for Social Security is that its COLAs don’t keep up with the real inflation rate for retirees. However, their actual costs will probably increase by a greater percentage than the COLA - no matter what percentage that boost turns out to be. Social Security COLAs are intended to help seniors maintain their standard of living as prices rise due to inflation. Your cost of living could go up even more The SSA takes the average of data from the third quarter of the current year, and compares it to the equivalent data from the previous year to get an estimate of inflation.Image source: Getty Images. If a 10.5% COLA increase were to come into effect the average beneficiary would receive an extra $175.10 per month.Īt this point, however, the size of next year’s COLA increase is purely speculation and the exact figure will be decided in the months to come. In 2022 the average monthly Social Security retirement benefit is $1,668, according to data provided by The Senior Citizens League. How much more will the average Social Security recipient get? This has led The Senior Citizens League, a non-partisan group advising senior citizens on financial matters, to estimate that the 2023 COLA increase could be as high as 10.5%.

The CPI-W is running even higher, at 9.8% across the last year. The SSA uses a slightly different calculus, known as the consumer Price Index for Urban Wage Earners and Clerical Workers (CPI-W), to determine the COLA figure. The Fed now has the go-ahead to make another super-sized interest rate hike - CNN Breaking News July 13, 2022

Inflation surged 9.1% year-over-year in June, thanks to record gas prices.
