Disability News

Cost Of Living Adjustment For Social Security In 2005

Monthly Social Security and Supplemental Security Income benefits for more than 52 million Americans will increase 2.7 percent in 2005.

Social Security and Supplemental Security Income benefits increase automatically each year based on the rise in the Bureau of Labor Statistics' Consumer Price Index for Urban Wage Earners and Clerical Workers (CPI-W), from the third quarter of the prior year to the corresponding period of the current year. This year's increase in the CPI-W was 2.7 percent.

The 2.7 percent Cost-of-Living Adjustment (COLA) will begin with benefits that more than 47 million Social Security beneficiaries receive in January 2005. Increased payments to 7 million Supplemental Security Income beneficiaries will begin on December 30.

Some other changes that take effect in January of each year are based on the increase in average wages. Based on that increase, the maximum amount of earnings subject to the Social Security tax (taxable maximum) will increase to $90,000 from $87,900. Of the estimated 159 million workers who will pay Social Security taxes in 2005, about 9.9 million will pay higher taxes as a result of the increase in the taxable maximum in 2005.

Please contact us if you or any qualified individual with a disability you know in Lowell has been discriminated against. Do not let anyone get away with violating the ADA.

	Did You Know?
	Accessibility is mandated by the US government As required by the Americans with Disabilities Act, removal of barriers that would hinder a person with a disability from entering, functioning, and working within a facility. Required restructuring of the facility cannot cause undue hardship for the employer.