Adjusting 1983 Combined Income Limits to benefit Working over 65

[JamesH940007]

Why is it that the limits set in 1983 for the amount of additional income a Social Security recipient has earned is not tied in some fashion to COLA or economic inflation.  I can't quite make it on SSA benefit and have to supplement to the point that I consistently cross the $32,000 limit. It seems to me that limit should at least be $40K by now.  This should be a easy fix for our current President

[GailL1]

@JamesH940007 

IT IS - it increases every year with any COLA.

The 2025 earnings limit for those who are LESS THAN full retirement age is $23,400 but in the year you reach your Full retirement age it increases to $62,160 (2025)  - and then the next year after reaching your full retirement age, you can work and earn all you want and get your whole benefit - 

Is that what you are talking about?

@BalbonisMoleskine seems to think you are talking about taxation on benefits - if you are then those taxes on benefits are helping keep the Trust Fund afloat right now - in 2023, taxation on benefits added 50 BILLION to the Trust Fund balance.

But on another note (2) Senators - Blackburn and Marshall  just introduced 5-days ago  a bill to increase the amount. 

S. 358 - Reducing Excessive Taxation and Inefficiencies by Reforming Elder Exemptions to Support Fai...

The text - S.358 RETIREES FIRST ACT - (short title)

https://www.marshall.senate.gov/wp-content/uploads/RETIREES-FIRST-Act.pdf 

[BalbonisMoleskine]

No president can fix that. Only Congress has that authority.

Why hasn't it been changed? Because doing so would mean even less money to pay SS benefits. According to https://www.aarp.org/retirement/social-security/info-2023/social-security-taxes.html: "By law, federal income taxes collected on benefits go into the government’s Social Security and Medicare trust funds, meaning they contribute to future benefit payments. Income taxes on benefits paid out in 2022 added $48.6 billion to Social Security’s coffers, accounting for about 4 percent of the program’s revenue, the vast majority of which comes from payroll taxes levied separately on most U.S. workers’ earnings."

That's also why it's unlikely to be changed -- ever.