{"id":352896,"date":"2025-12-16T22:22:07","date_gmt":"2025-12-16T22:22:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/352896\/"},"modified":"2025-12-16T22:22:07","modified_gmt":"2025-12-16T22:22:07","slug":"social-security-is-changing-in-2026-here-are-4-key-updates-to-know","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/352896\/","title":{"rendered":"Social Security is changing in 2026: Here are 4 key updates to know"},"content":{"rendered":"

The tens of millions of Americans who rely on Social Security benefits should be aware of some upcoming changes that may impact their monthly checks in 2026.<\/p>\n

In 2025, an average of nearly 69 million Americans per month were collecting Social Security benefits, totaling roughly $1.6 trillion in benefits paid during the year, according to the Social Security Administration.<\/p>\n

Social Security benefits represent about 31% of income for Americans aged 65 and older, the administration said, making the monthly checks an invaluable asset for millions of aging citizens.<\/p>\n

Changes announced throughout the year will increase monthly benefit amounts for millions of Americans and adjust several earnings thresholds related to the program.<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s a look at four major Social Security changes to be aware of in 2026.<\/p>\n

Higher monthly benefits<\/p>\n

Each year, Social Security benefits are subject to an annual cost-of-living adjustment based on inflation rates to ensure that monthly payments keep pace with rising costs.<\/p>\n

In October, the SSA announced that beneficiaries will see a 2.8% increase<\/a> for 2026.<\/p>\n

Those who receive Social Security benefits will start seeing higher payments in January, while those receiving SSI will see them starting Dec. 31.<\/p>\n

Cost-of-living adjustments are determined using third-quarter data \u2013 July, August and September \u2013 from the Consumer Price Index for Urban Wage Earners and Clerical Workers.<\/p>\n

Inflation for those three months is added together, averaged and then compared to the previous year\u2019s third-quarter average, with the percentage difference between the current year and the previous year serving as the COLA rate for the upcoming year.<\/p>\n

Payroll taxes<\/p>\n

Those paying into Social Security will have more of their income subject to payroll taxes in 2026, with the taxable maximum increasing from $176,100 to $184,500.<\/p>\n

As a result, high earners will have more of their income taxed for Social Security.<\/p>\n

Earnings test limit<\/p>\n

For those below the normal retirement age, which is 67 for those born 1960 or later, Social Security withholds benefits if your earnings exceed a certain level through the administration\u2019s earnings test.<\/p>\n

The earning test limit, which is how much a beneficiary can earn before some of their benefits are withheld, will increase in 2026.<\/p>\n

For those who will be under the full retirement age for the entirety of 2026, the limit will rise from $23,400 to $24,480. Those reaching full retirement age in 2026 will see their limit increase from $62,160 to $65,160.<\/p>\n

The earnings test does not apply to recipients who have already reached full retirement age.<\/p>\n

Maximum benefit<\/p>\n

The maximum benefit one can receive from Social Security will increase from $5,108 in 2025 to $5,251 in 2026.<\/p>\n

However, most recipients will likely receive a much lower amount, with the average monthly benefit for retired workers sitting at $2,013.32 as of November 2025, according to data from the Social Security Administration.<\/a><\/p>\n

Monthly retirement benefit amounts vary based on when a worker retires and how much they earned, with those who earned more during their careers and retired later in life having higher maximum benefit amounts.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The tens of millions of Americans who rely on Social Security benefits should be aware of some upcoming…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":352897,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[39],"tags":[28,147,530,1666,733,82571],"class_list":{"0":"post-352896","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-personal-finance","8":"tag-business","9":"tag-personal-finance","10":"tag-personalfinance","11":"tag-retirement","12":"tag-social-security","13":"tag-united-states-social-security-administration"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/352896","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=352896"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/352896\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/352897"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=352896"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=352896"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=352896"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}