Lawmakers Plan Hearings for Bill to Raise Social Security Benefits, Payroll Taxes

The Social Security Administration's 2018 trustees' report predicts the Social Security Trust Fund will be depleted by 2034, so lawmakers are planning a series of hearings to examine proposed legislation to prevent this, reports ThinkAdvisor . The Social Security 2100 Act unveiled last April would boost both benefits and the payroll taxes that fund them, as well as change how cost-of-living adjustments are calculated. Social Security Chief Actuary Stephen Goss confirmed at a recent House hearing that the bill fortifies the Social Security Trust Fund so it has financial soundness throughout the 75-year forecast. Rep. Bill Pascrell (D-N.J.) said the bill "would raise benefits," and that a series of "good hearings down the road" would be held on the proposal. "I can't support any program that would cut benefits in order to solve the problem," he stressed. Goss concurred that resolving the viability of Social Security relies on "enacting something to make changes that will be necessary sooner rather than later." The Senior Citizens League says if passed, the bill would bolster Social Security benefits by basing COLAs on the Consumer Price Index for the Elderly, raising monthly benefits by 2 percent, setting up a new Special Minimum Benefit equal to 125 percent of the poverty line, delivering a tax cut to beneficiaries, applying the payroll tax to annual income over $400,000, and gradually increasing the payroll tax rate by 0.25 percent.