The Government announced the cost of living adjustment for Social Security beneficiaries for 2013. Your monthly benefit will increase by 1.7% next year, which represents a $20-$30/month increase on average. Cost of living adjustments or COLAs, have provided much needed relief for seniors who rely on Social Security as their primary source of income. Because of these increases, Social Security recipients are the only group of Americans who have not reported a decrease in overall income in the last 4 years. These increases occur automatically and will reflect your January checks.
In the same announcement, the Government also announced the increase to Medicare Part B for 2013. The Medicare premium has prompted many questions from clients who are concerned about a sharp increase if the ACA (Health Care Reform) remains. I wrote about those concerns in a previous blog suggesting there was not going to be a drastic increase and as more information becomes available, it suggests the same. The Medicare Part B premium is set to increase around $7/month from $99.90 for 2013. There haven’t been any official figures offered, as the Part B premium is required to fund 25% of total Part B expenses and that figure is not available at this time.
