Social Security Enhancement and Protection Act of 2025

This bill would boost Social Security benefits for people who need it and update how high earnings are taxed. It raises the minimum benefit for long‑time, low‑wage workers, counting up to five years spent caring for a child under age 6, and ties that minimum to the 2025 poverty guideline so it keeps up over time; this applies to people first eligible in 2026 and later. It also adds an extra benefit boost for people who have been eligible for Social Security for at least 16 years, with the increase growing the longer they’ve been on the program.

It extends a child’s benefit for full‑time post‑secondary students up to age 26, with a four‑month grace period between high school and college; this applies to applications filed after 2025 . The bill would also tax some wages and self‑employment income above the usual Social Security wage limit and raise Social Security tax rates for workers, employers, and the self‑employed starting in 2026, while giving a small benefit credit by counting 3% of those extra earnings in the benefit formula for future benefits . Any benefit increases from this bill would not count against eligibility for other federal or federally funded programs after December 2025.

• Who is affected: long‑time, low‑wage workers; people on Social Security for many years; full‑time college or trade‑school students under 26; workers, employers, and self‑employed people with earnings affected by Social Security taxes .
• What changes: higher minimum benefits tied to the poverty guideline; a longevity‑of‑eligibility boost; student benefits extended to 26; some earnings above the wage limit taxed and credited at 3%; higher Social Security tax rates .
• When: most provisions take effect for benefits or applications after 2025 (i.e., starting in 2026), and benefit increases won’t count against other programs after December 2025 .