• Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
Zimmer Law Firm logo Zimmer Law Firm
  • Our Firm
    • About Our Firm
    • Attorney and Staff Profiles
    • Communities We Serve
      • Butler County
        • Fairfield
        • Hamilton
        • West Chester
      • Clermont County
        • Milford
      • Hamilton County
        • Blue Ash
        • Cincinnati
        • Loveland
        • Montgomery
        • Sharonville
      • Warren County
        • Mason
    • Our Client Care Program
  • Services
    • Estate Planning Services in Cincinnati, Ohio
    • Incapacity Planning
    • IRA Inheritance Planning in Cincinnati, Ohio
    • Legacy Wealth Planning in Ohio
    • LGBTQ Estate Planning Services in Ohio
    • Medicaid Planning and Elder Law
    • How the SECURE Act Impacts Your Ohio Estate Plan
    • Special Needs Estate Planning in Cincinnati, Ohio
    • Young Adult Legal Protection Plan in Ohio
  • Live Events
    • Webinars
  • Resources
    • DocuBank
    • Ohio Elder Law Resources
      • Blue Ash
      • Cincinnati
      • Elder Law & Medicaid Definitions
      • Fairfield
      • Hamilton
      • Loveland
      • Montgomery
      • Sharonville
      • West Chester
    • Estate Planning Resources
      • Estate & Gift Tax Figures
      • Estate Planning Checkup
      • Estate Planning Definitions
      • Free Estate Planning Checklist
      • Incapacity Planning Definitions
      • Is Your Estate Plan Outdated?
      • Legacy Planning Definitions
      • Top 10 Estate Planning Techniques
    • FAQs
    • Pre Consultation Form
    • Probate Resources
      • Blue Ash
      • Cincinnati
      • Hamilton
      • Loveland
      • Mason
      • Milford
      • Probate Checklist
      • Sharonville
      • Trust Administration & Probate Definitions
      • West Chester
    • Presentations
  • Blog
  • Reviews
  • Contact

Zimmer Law Firm

Estate Planning & Elder Law Attorneys

513.721.1513
Request a Free Consultation
Request a Free Consultation

Google initial with star next to it

  • Our Firm
    • About Our Firm
    • Attorney and Staff Profiles
    • Communities We Serve
      • Butler County
        • Fairfield
        • Hamilton
        • West Chester
      • Clermont County
        • Milford
      • Hamilton County
        • Blue Ash
        • Cincinnati
        • Loveland
        • Montgomery
        • Sharonville
      • Warren County
        • Mason
    • Our Client Care Program
  • Services
    • Estate Planning Services in Cincinnati, Ohio
    • Incapacity Planning
    • IRA Inheritance Planning in Cincinnati, Ohio
    • Legacy Wealth Planning in Ohio
    • LGBTQ Estate Planning Services in Ohio
    • Medicaid Planning and Elder Law
    • How the SECURE Act Impacts Your Ohio Estate Plan
    • Special Needs Estate Planning in Cincinnati, Ohio
    • Young Adult Legal Protection Plan in Ohio
  • Live Events
    • Webinars
  • Resources
    • DocuBank
    • Ohio Elder Law Resources
      • Blue Ash
      • Cincinnati
      • Elder Law & Medicaid Definitions
      • Fairfield
      • Hamilton
      • Loveland
      • Montgomery
      • Sharonville
      • West Chester
    • Estate Planning Resources
      • Estate & Gift Tax Figures
      • Estate Planning Checkup
      • Estate Planning Definitions
      • Free Estate Planning Checklist
      • Incapacity Planning Definitions
      • Is Your Estate Plan Outdated?
      • Legacy Planning Definitions
      • Top 10 Estate Planning Techniques
    • FAQs
    • Pre Consultation Form
    • Probate Resources
      • Blue Ash
      • Cincinnati
      • Hamilton
      • Loveland
      • Mason
      • Milford
      • Probate Checklist
      • Sharonville
      • Trust Administration & Probate Definitions
      • West Chester
    • Presentations
  • Blog
  • Reviews
  • Contact

Seniors Will Receive Social Security COLA in 2021

Home Our Blog Seniors Will Receive Social Security COLA in 2021

By Barry Zimmer on November 24th, 2020 in Retirement Planning

The new year will be here before you know it, and the Social Security Administration has released their updated figures for 2021. We will take a look at them in this post, and we will provide all the Medicare details when they become available.

Cost of Living Adjustment (COLA)

Since prices tend to rise on an ongoing basis, the Social Security Administration will usually provide cost-of-living adjustments. We say “usually” because there was no change at all in 2009, 2010, and 2015, and in 2016, the COLA was a measly .3 percent.

Next year there will be a 1.3 percent Social Security cost-of-living adjustment. This equates to a $20 increase for someone that is receiving the average benefit, which is $1523 in 2020.

Max Earnings for Early Social Security Beneficiaries

You become eligible for a full Social Security benefit when you are 66 if you were born between 1943 and 1954. The eligibility age rises by two months each year after that, so someone born in 1955 will become eligible for a full benefit two months after they reach the age of 66.

It goes up by two months in this manner until 1960 when the gradual increase stops at 67 years of age. Anyone that was born in 1960 or a later year will become eligible for a full benefit when they are 67 under currently existing laws.

This is the age for the full benefit, but you have another option. You can accept your benefit when you are as young as 62, but there are two reasons why you may want to wait it out.

One of them is the fact that the benefit would be considerably less than your full benefit. The reduction would be somewhere between 25 percent and 30 percent, and the exact amount would be tied to your birth year.

If you are working when you are receiving an early benefit, you are penalized if you make more than a certain amount of money. The limit is going up from $18,240 this year to $18,960 in 2021.

How does the penalty work? Your benefit is reduced by one dollar for every two dollars that you make above this limit, so the early option is a very poor choice for most people that work full time.

Taxable Income Ceiling

There is a maximum amount of income that can be taxed for Social Security purposes, and it is subject to annual upward revisions. This year, the maximum is $137,700, and in 2021, the ceiling will be $142,800.

Since there is a limit to the amount that can be taxed, there is also a max benefit. The maximum monthly benefit has been $3011 in 2020, and it will rise to $3148 next year.

Medicare Part B Premium Increase

As we stated in the opening, we do not have all the updated Medicare figures yet, but there is one piece of information that we can share at this time. Part B is the portion of the program that pays for care that is provided by doctors, and you have to pay a monthly premium for this coverage.

There are annual premium increases, but because of a provision contained within the current COVID-conscious budget, it cannot exceed 25 percent of the increase that would ordinarily be warranted.

This provision is temporary, but there is a built-in mechanism that limits the premium increases on an ongoing basis. If the cost-of-living adjustment in a given year is less than the increase in the Part B premium, the benefit will not be reduced.

Attend a Free Webinar

We are conducting a number of webinars in the near future, and this is a great way to obtain some very important information from the comfort of your home. These sessions are free, but we ask that you register in advance so we can reserve your spot.

You can see the dates if you visit our webinar page, and you when you identify the session the works for you, follow simple instructions to register.

 

 

Primary Sidebar

Request a Free Consultation

  • This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.

What Our Clients Say

Some years ago, Barry Zimmer suggested we do a basic estate plan for our son when he went to college. We had no idea how important it would be! In our son's freshman year, he ended up in the hospital, and we were able to get crucial information about his condition because we had a health care ...

Read All Testimonials

Zimmer Law Firm

9825 Kenwood Road
Suite 201
Cincinnati, OH 45242
  • Facebook Logo
  • Linkedin Logo
  • X Logo
  • Youtube Logo

Copyright © 2025 Zimmer Law Firm
Disclaimer Privacy Policy

 

Make a Payment