Social Security is Changing for the Better in 2025 — The New Requirements You Must Meet

Social Security is Changing for the Better in 2025 — The New Requirements You Must Meet

We haven’t even finished the first two weeks of 2025, and Social Security is planning and implementing a slew of changes that you must understand.

It can be difficult to keep track of everything that is constantly changing in terms of how the Social Security Administration (SSA) interacts with each program, but we have attempted to provide you with a brief overview of what you should be aware of; please continue reading to stay current.

What are the changes that Social Security has implemented for this new year?

The first change you will notice, unless you are a Supplemental Security Income (SSI) recipient, in which case it will take effect on December 31st, 2024, is the adoption of the Cost-of-Living Adjustment (COLA), which was determined to be 2.5% last October.

Many beneficiaries would be dissatisfied if the number were lower than in previous years. However, from another perspective, it means less severe inflation and a lower impact on the purchasing power of your monthly benefit payment.

Because the COLA is a lagging indicator that does not track price increases in real time, it is pointless to be pleased with a higher percentage because it almost certainly indicates that the next year will be filled with gains in all prices in the economy, forcing you to tighten your belt and forego some indulgences.

Furthermore, COLA adjustments affect not only your monthly earnings, but also other values managed by the SSA related to how the programs work. For example, your maximum taxable earnings have risen from $168,600 to $176,100, implying that you must now pay Social Security taxes on a larger portion of your income.

Social Security is changing for good in 2025 – the new requirements you need to meet
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Other updated figures include the retirement earnings test exempt amount (if you intend to continue working after retirement), which has increased from $22,320 to $23,400 per year.

Finally, the change of the year brings about another change in the pocket. First, the Full Retirement Age (FRA) is changed, so that people born in 1956 will have a FRA of 66 years and 10 months, assuming they were born in January; by November 2025, they will have reached it.

If you were born in 1960, your full retirement age would be 67, and you would not be eligible for Social Security benefits until 2027.

How can you access Social Security now that these changes have been implemented?

The application process for Social Security has not changed significantly. There have been only slight modifications in the selection processes during 2024, especially for the SSI, which has eliminated the food category from the in-kind Support and Maintenance (ISM) calculations or sped up the necessary steps by requiring an online application.

The Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI), which has expanded the conditions included in the Compassionate Allowances List—the group of conditions that are considered to be Overall, the SSA has worked to become more digital so that it can use its resources more efficiently and process applications more quickly.

Nonetheless, even if the process is accelerated, the documentation required to be a part of the SSA’s portfolio remains essentially unchanged. The first requirement is to have proof of citizenship, such as a US birth certificate or a US passport.

Next, you’ll need to provide proof of your birth date. In this case, a US passport will suffice, but you can also provide any religious record issued before the age of five, as well as medical records from the hospital where you were born in the US.

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