CNBC Senior Personal Finance Correspondent Sharon Epperson explains who benefits and changes coming soon to the Social Security program.

Washington

Social Security provides guaranteed income for retirees, survivors, and disabled Americans, funded through payroll taxes. Eligibility for full benefits depends on the year of birth, with most people able to claim between ages 66 and 67, though early and delayed claiming options exist.

Recent changes include the discontinuation of paper checks in favor of direct deposit, requiring recipients to enroll online. Cost-of-living adjustments continue to increase benefits annually, and individuals are encouraged to use online calculators to determine the optimal time to claim their benefits.

What you need to know about Social Security

It's guaranteed income. It is an income stream financial protection for people who are retired, for their survivors, and for disabled Americans. And a lot of people don't understand, well, how is it funded? It's funded by you, by payroll taxes that you've put into it. And you're able to get these benefits for your lifetime after you start claiming them in retirement. The thing that people need to know is when to claim them. And what that is is your full retirement age. It's not the same as Medicare. And it may differ depending on what year you were born. So for most people, it's between the ages of 66 and 67. You could take your retirement benefits early as well, as early as age 62, and as late as age 70 to get the maximum benefit. The other thing to keep in mind is this is guaranteed money, but it does increase over time based on the cost of living. So that cost of living increase this year is 2.5%. It should go up next year. The COLA. The COLA, exactly. And this year, there are some big changes. Can you walk us through those? So some of the big changes are the fact that there are no longer going to be paper checks for your retirement checks. Direct deposit. Direct deposit. You've got to enroll in that. Go to the Social Security website if you're not already enrolled there. And make sure that you know if you're turning 65 this year, you were born in 1960, that does not mean you're at the full retirement age. You can't collect Social Security yet, at least not the full benefit. You have to wait till 67. So this is the time to figure out, does it make sense to take it now or take it later? There are calculators on the Social Security Administration website that you can go to. My favorite is going to the one that's my Social Security account, because you get your earnings and you get to get an estimate of what it will look like 62 all the way to 70, what your monthly benefit will be.

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