Your benefit amount will not stay the same--generally, the benefit amount increases each year and protects beneficiaries against inflation. Social Security provides an annual cost-of-living increase that is based on the consumer price index. The 2007 increase for beneficiaries is 3.3 percent and the 2006 increase was 4.1 percent.

There is another way that your benefit might increase. When you work, you pay Social Security taxes. And because you pay these taxes, Social Security refigures your benefits to take into account your extra earnings. If the worker's earnings for the year are higher than the earnings that were used in the original benefit computation, Social Security substitutes the new year of earnings. The higher your earnings, the more your refigured benefit might be.

Social Security can't tell you here how much your benefit will increase as each case is different and Social Security recomputes your benefit using your lifetime earnings. You need not take any special action. A recomputation of your benefits will be done automatically in the year following the close of the year in which you worked. Social Security usually completes all recomputations by September of the following year (remember, employers do not report your income to Social Security until February 28 of the year following the year of earnings). If you are entitled to a higher benefit, it is retroactive to January of the year after the year when you had the additional earnings.