Social security changed throughout 2015. Here’s how

Matt Pierce
January 12, 2016

Social security isn’t something that has just hit centre stage. It has been with us for over 80 years now but during this whole tenure, there have been considerable changes made. The year 2015 was no different; there were some small changes and there were some alterations that have caused serious implications for all the current retirees and the ones that are all set to retire in the future. Here are some of the ways it changed:

Small benefit increases:

As the last year begun, there were some good news given to all the social security recipients as they got a good 1.7 percent increase in their cost of living plans. This boost was good but it made 2015 the third consecutive year where the annual COLA was lesser than 2 percent; this was a cause for concern for all the older Americans because it wasn’t a good indicative of the funds that they would ideally want to live their life up to the set standards. This increase though meant that the monthly Social security benefits that the employees were set to receive got higher.

Social security claiming methodologies edging the end:

The file and suspend strategy that some of the federal employees make use of will no longer be available after May 2016. This was announced during the month of November.

The maximum SS benefits:

During 2015, we saw the maximum social security benefit also reach to an alarming height of 2663 dollars per month. It’s worth mentioning that this is the highest the highest level has ever gone. This entails that you will earn the highest possible income level for around 35 years (if not more) during your tenure of service.

Like every year, we see that 2015 did bring about stark changes in the way social security is awarded.