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Changes for 2025, including a cost-of-living adjustment and new Medicare Part B premium rates, will affect the size of Social Security beneficiaries’ checks.
In December, beneficiaries can expect to see benefit notices online and in the mail.

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A new 2.5% cost-of-living adjustment

In 2025, retirement benefits will increase by about $50 per month, on average, according to the Social Security Administration.

That’s due to the 2.5% annual cost-of-living adjustment.
Notably, the benefit boost for 2025 will be the lowest since 2021. As the pace of inflation has subsided, the cost-of-living adjustment has come down with it, since the Social Security Administration uses government inflation data to calculate the annual change.
Beneficiaries saw the highest increases in four decades in 2023, when the COLA was 8.7%, and in 2022, when benefits went up by 5.9%. However, the annual COLA started to come down in 2024, with a 3.2% annual adjustment.
“Although price increases have moderated, it’s not as though inflation is over,” said Joe Elsasser, a certified financial planner and president of Covisum, a Social Security claiming software company.  
If the pace of inflation picks up again, the annual COLA could go up again, he said.

Arrows pointing outwards

Monthly Medicare Part B premiums to go up

Retirees who are enrolled in Medicare Part B — which covers physician services, outpatient hospital services and certain home health services and durable medical equipment — pay monthly premiums.
Medicare Part B premiums are often deducted directly from Social Security checks. Beneficiaries can also request to have Medicare Advantage or Part D premiums deducted from Social Security benefit payments, according to Mary Johnson, an independent Social Security and Medicare analyst.
In 2025, the standard monthly Part B premium will go up to $185 per month — a $10.30 increase from $174.70 this year.
At the same time, Medicare Part B beneficiaries will see their annual deductibles go up to $257 in 2025 — a $17 increase from the $240 annual deductible for 2024.
Medicare Part B premiums are based on a beneficiary’s modified adjusted gross income, or MAGI, from two years prior. In 2025, beneficiaries who had less than or equal to $106,000 in MAGI in 2023 will pay the standard monthly Part B premium, as will married couples with less than or equal to $212,000.
However, beneficiaries with higher incomes will be subject to income-related adjustment amounts, or IRMAA, that increase their monthly premium payments.
About 8% of Medicare Part B beneficiaries are affected by those income-related adjustments, according to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.

Income changes may prompt higher taxes

Social Security beneficiaries may request to have withholding for federal taxes deducted from their benefit payments.
Beneficiaries may want to consider whether they want to adjust those withholdings, particularly if they anticipate more of their benefits could be taxed, according to Jim Blair, vice president of Premier Social Security Consulting.
Social Security benefits are taxed on a formula called combined income — the sum of adjusted gross income, nontaxable interest and half of Social Security benefits. Beneficiaries may pay no taxes on their benefits, if their combined income is low enough, or up to 50% or 85% of their benefits may be subject to federal taxes if their combined incomes are above certain thresholds.
“What we’ve seen with clients is kind of a surge in other income that has caused more of their Social Security to be taxed,” said CFP Brian Vosberg, president of Vosberg Wealth Management in Glendora, California.

For example, retirees who have $200,000 in money market accounts or certificates of deposit are seeing higher interest payments on that sum after the Federal Reserve’s string of rate hikes in recent years. That interest income may require beneficiaries to pay a higher federal tax rate on their benefits, Vosberg said.
Proactive tax planning can help alleviate that situation, Vosberg said. Strategies such as buying an annuity that lets that interest grow tax-deferred or reducing income from other areas, such as IRA withdrawals, can help minimize the tax bite, he said.
Retirees should also take note if their incomes have meaningfully changed in the past couple of years, according to Blair. If that’s the case, their monthly Medicare Part B premium rate may no longer be accurate. Beneficiaries can notify the Social Security Administration of life-changing events that affect their incomes and Medicare premiums by filling out a Form SSA-44.   More

A “classic” Thanksgiving meal for 10 will cost about $58 in 2024, roughly 5% less than 2023, according to the American Farm Bureau Federation.
Turkey prices had the largest impact on that decline.
Food inflation overall has decreased significantly from pandemic-era highs.

Filadendron | E+ | Getty Images

Thanksgiving is a time to gather with loved ones, to show gratitude for life’s abundance — and, of course, to eat.
And when it comes to Thanksgiving food, it seems Americans are getting relief on their grocery bills this year following a few years of escalating costs.

A “classic” Thanksgiving feast for a party of 10 will cost $58.08 in 2024, on average — down 5% from 2023 and down 9% from 2022, according to the American Farm Bureau Federation, a trade group for farmers and ranchers.
Its analysis includes turkey, cubed stuffing, sweet potatoes, dinner rolls, frozen peas, fresh cranberries, celery, carrots, pumpkin pie mix and crusts, whipping cream and whole milk.

Prices for this food basket were at a record high in 2022, at $64.05, the Farm Bureau said.
Households that add ham, russet potatoes and frozen green beans into the mix would pay $77.34 in 2024, on average — an 8% decrease from 2023, the Farm Bureau said.
The annual decline in prices will be welcome news to many households: 44% of people hosting Thanksgiving this year are concerned about the cost of the event, according to a recent Deloitte survey.

The decrease is largely due to various supply-and-demand dynamics driving down prices for key staples — turkey, most importantly — and an overarching decline in U.S. food inflation, according to economists.
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“Food inflation has been pretty tame,” said Robin Wenzel, head of the Wells Fargo Agri-Food Institute. “You’re seeing some good relief there.”
That said, a classic Thanksgiving meal is still 19% pricier than it was in 2019, according to the Farm Bureau.
“Declines don’t really erase the dramatic increases we had,” said Bernt Nelson, a Farm Bureau economist.

Turkey has been a ‘curious item’

Turkey price movements had “definitely the biggest impact” on the overall cost of a Thanksgiving meal this year, Nelson said. That’s because a 16-pound bird accounts for 44% of the overall Thanksgiving grocery bill, he said.
The national average cost for a 16-pound turkey is down 6% from 2023, according to the Farm Bureau. Overall turkey prices have decreased about 4% in the past year, according to the consumer price index.
Turkey has been a “curious item this year,” Nelson said.
On one hand, turkey supply is down “significantly,” he said. Farmers raised about 205 million turkeys in 2024, down 6% from 2023, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. That’s the lowest figure since 1985, Nelson said.

Monty Rakusen | Digitalvision | Getty Images

Largely, that’s because of the impact of bird flu, a lethal and contagious disease among birds that has contributed to the deaths of about 14 million turkeys since 2022, he said.
Lower supply would tend to raise prices, all else equal. But consumer demand has decreased as well. To that point, turkey consumption per capita has fallen by about one pound this year, he said.
The aggregate impact has been lower turkey prices.

Weather and labor impacts

Meanwhile, prices fell notably — by 14% — for whole milk, a staple ingredient in pie and other recipes, Nelson said.
That’s largely attributable to “favorable” weather conditions in the U.S. for dairy cattle — both in terms of their overall well-being and for crops they eat — thereby helping boost milk production, Nelson said.
Of course, not everything is cheaper.
Prices for processed foods such as dinner rolls and cubed stuffing increased more than 8% from 2023, for example, the Farm Bureau said. That’s primarily attributable to non-food-related inflation such as labor costs, pushing up prices “for partners across the food supply chain,” the group said in its analysis.

Food inflation has been pretty tame. You’re seeing some good relief there.

Robin Wenzel
Wells Fargo Agri-Food Institute

Aside from labor costs, there were many contributors to fast-rising grocery prices during the pandemic era.
For example, in 2022, food prices grew faster than in any year since 1979, partly due to a bird-flu outbreak that affected egg and poultry prices, while Russia’s invasion of Ukraine “compounded other economy-wide inflationary pressures such as high energy costs,” according to the USDA.
Higher costs for energy, including gasoline and diesel fuel, translate into higher prices across the food supply chain, such as distribution of groceries to store shelves, experts said.
“Food price growth slowed in 2023 as wholesale food prices and these other inflationary factors eased from 2022,” the USDA said, and it has declined further in 2024.

How to trim Thanksgiving costs

Consumers looking to save money on their Thanksgiving meal in 2024 can do so by toggling between store brands and name brands for certain grocery items, according to Wenzel of the Wells Fargo Agri-Food Institute.
A menu of completely store-brand items to feed 10 friends and family members would yield a total savings of $17, according to a Wells Fargo analysis.

Consumers often pay a premium for name-brand items, but that’s not true in all cases this year.
For example, name-brand cranberries are cheaper than the store brand, on average, Wenzel said.
“When shopping this year, it really comes back to doing a little bit of research,” Wenzel said.      More

Millions of student loan borrowers have had their debt forgiven under the Biden administration.
Could President-elect Donald Trump take back that relief? Here’s what to know.

Mementojpeg | Moment | Getty Images

Since President Joe Biden took office, the Education Department has canceled the federal student loans of nearly 5 million people, totaling $175 billion in relief, according to the White House.
It has done so mostly by improving existing student loan relief programs that had long been plagued by problems, including the Public Service Loan Forgiveness initiative and income-driven repayment plans.
Those borrowers should be in the clear, experts say.

“Any regulatory changes must be prospective only,” meaning that eliminations to loan forgiveness programs would only impact new borrowers, explained Betsy Mayotte, president of The Institute of Student Loan Advisors, a nonprofit that helps borrowers navigate the repayment of their debt.
“They aren’t allowed to change regulations retroactively,” she added.
For that reason, even borrowers who have been pursuing forgiveness under an income-driven repayment plan or a program like PSLF, but have not yet received that relief, may be safe.
The terms of a loan, which are spelled out in the master promissory note federal student loan borrowers sign when they take out the debt, can’t be change in the middle of repayment, experts said.
In June, U.S. District Judge Daniel Crabtree in Wichita, Kansas, described student loan forgiveness as having an “irreversible impact,” in his decision to block one of the Biden administration’s relief measures.
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The retraction of student loan forgiveness is incredibly rare, Kantrowitz writes in a recent article in The College Investor.
For example, in February, some borrowers saw their debts reinstated under the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program. Yet that only occurred because the debt cancellation was granted through an error, and the borrowers were not yet eligible for the relief.
“Don’t worry,” Kantrowitz said. “The president does not have the legal authority to reinstate forgiven loans.”
Still, borrowers should keep a record of the notices they’ve received about their forgiven debt, and any loan documents showing a $0 balance, Kantrowitz said.
In a new report, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau cites, among the errors reported by student loan borrowers, “balance reinstatements,” in which a loan servicer tacks a loan balance back on to one’s account.

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Auto and legal experts suggest consumers interested in an electric vehicle should buy or lease an all-electric or plug-in hybrid by the end of 2024 to ensure they can access a federal tax credit.
President-elect Trump campaigned on a promise to slash the EV tax credit, worth up to $7,500. Elon Musk, Tesla CEO and a Trump supporter, also dislikes the EV credit.
Republicans will likely aim to eliminate the credit to raise money for a package of tax cuts expected to cost several trillion dollars.

Maskot | Digitalvision | Getty Images

Prospective car buyers considering an electric vehicle may need to act fast to get a Biden-era EV tax credit worth up to $7,500, due to the likelihood that President-elect Donald Trump and Republicans on Capitol Hill will axe those savings in tax negotiations next year, according to auto and legal experts.
“There’s no question there’s real risk in the EV credit going away” in 2025, said Jamie Wickett, a partner at law firm Hogan Lovells who specializes in federal tax policy, energy and the environment.

“If you’re a consumer in the market for an EV, I would without a doubt push that into 2024, if at all possible — whether an outright purchase or a lease — just to reduce the risk of the credit going away,” Wickett said.

The Inflation Reduction Act offered federal EV tax breaks through 2032 for consumers who buy or lease new or used EVs, including all-electric and plug-in hybrid electric vehicles.
The credit is worth up to $7,500 for new cars and $4,000 for used ones.
The IRA, which President Joe Biden signed in 2022, also made it easier for consumers to access the savings by allowing dealers to pay the funds upfront at purchase instead of waiting until tax season.

Trump pledged to ‘cancel the electric vehicle mandate’

The Trump transition team reportedly aims to eliminate the EV credits to raise money for a broad package of tax cuts Republicans are expected to pursue next year.

Trump’s campaign agenda vowed to “cancel the electric vehicle mandate.”
Elon Musk, chief executive officer of Tesla and an influential Trump supporter, has also called for an end to the credits and said killing the subsidies would hurt the EV maker’s U.S. competitors.
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Karoline Leavitt, a spokeswoman for the Trump-Vance transition, said the president-elect would follow through with his pledge.
“The American people re-elected President Trump by a resounding margin giving him a mandate to implement the promises he made on the campaign trail,” Leavitt said in an email. “He will deliver.”

President-elect Donald Trump and Elon Musk talk ring side during the UFC 309 event at Madison Square Garden on Nov. 16, 2024 in New York.
Chris Unger | Ufc | Getty Images

There’s considerable uncertainty over the contents of a future Republican tax package and the fate of the EV credit, experts said.
Extending a slew of expiring income tax cuts and fulfilling various Trump campaign promises like slashing taxes on tips, Social Security benefits and overtime pay, for example, could cost about $7.8 trillion over 10 years, the Tax Foundation estimates.
Repealing all the IRA’s green energy tax credits, including the EV credit, would offset that cost by about $921 billion, it said.

Waiting is ‘too big of a gamble’

Laura, a 44-year-old living in Charlotte, North Carolina, has been looking to buy a plug-in hybrid for several years due to their environmental benefits and cost savings on gasoline.
She was getting ready to buy one thanks to the $7,500 EV credit, which made the vehicles more affordable, she said.
Laura, who asked not to use her last name, is now rushing to buy a 2025 Chrysler Pacifica Hybrid by year’s end because the credit might go away. To wait and buy in 2025 is “too big of a gamble” given Trump’s antipathy toward the EV credit, she said.
Local car dealers have informed Laura that she qualifies for the full $7,500 credit, which carries some restrictions depending on car model and buyers’ income, for example.

There’s no question there’s real risk in the EV credit going away.

Jamie Wickett
partner at law firm Hogan Lovells

However, dealers in her area don’t have many vehicles available right now, she said — and have told her that’s because consumers are scrambling to buy EVs in case the tax break disappears.
Dealers are hopeful they’ll have more inventory in the coming weeks, she said.
Laura said she wouldn’t buy the car without the tax credit.
“If it’s not going to be in by the end of December 2024, then that changes everything [for me],” she said.
She fears Trump and Republicans on Capitol Hill might try to claw back the $7,500 tax credit retroactively, for any consumers who get an EV in 2025 or beyond.
The irony is their “complete disdain for the tax credit” is what prompted her to try to get an EV more rapidly, she said.

Take advantage of a ‘known entity’

“I would encourage consumers to take advantage of the tax credit while it’s a known entity,” said Ingrid Malmgren, senior policy director at Plug In America, a group that advocates for the transition to EVs.
Most consumers have opted to get the credit as a discount at the point of sale, according to the U.S. Treasury Department. The car dealer essentially issues an advance tax credit to consumers, and the Treasury then refunds that advance payment.
Consumers who sign a lease agreement by year’s end would be able to lock in their savings contractually over a multiyear lease term, even though the term would overlap with Trump’s presidency, Malmgren said.
But look over the agreement terms. One caveat might be if a dealer were to write a clause into the lease contract stipulating that if the tax credit were denied then the consumer’s monthly lease payments would increase, Wickett said.

He expects Republicans to pass a tax package by the end of 2025. In the most likely scenario, such a law would probably phase out the federal EV credit in 2026 or 2027, instead of turning off the spigot retroactively for all 2025 purchases, Wickett said.
“No one knows for sure,” he said. “But I think it’s fairly clear the Republicans are going to find a way to pass a major tax bill.”

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Traders work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange. 

Stocks @ Night is a daily newsletter delivered after hours, giving you a first look at tomorrow and last look at today. Sign up for free to receive it directly in your inbox.
Here’s what CNBC TV’s producers were watching as Nvidia lifted the Nasdaq Composite, and what’s on the radar for the next session.

Nvidia

Nvidia reports after the bell on Wednesday.
The stock ended Tuesday at $147.01, up nearly 5% on the day. It was just shy of the $149.77 high it hit on Nov. 8.
The stock is up 13% in three months.
It is up 196% so far in 2024.

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Nvidia shares in 2024

Target

The retail giant reports Wednesday before the bell.
The stock is up nearly 8% over the past three months.
Target is up 9.5% in 2024.
Walmart reported solid results Tuesday morning and raised guidance. The stock was up 3% and hit a new high. Shares are marginally lower in after hours.

Goldman Sachs

CEO David Solomon will be on CNBC TV Wednesday in the 11 a.m. hour ET.
The stock is 4.25% from last week’s high.
Goldman Sachs is up 12.3% in November.

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Goldman Sachs in 2024

Delta Air Lines

Ed Bastian, the airline’s CEO, will be on in the 6 a.m. hour.
The company is holding an investor meeting.
Delta Air Lines is up 13% in November and up about 61% so far in 2024.
United Airlines hit a high mark not seen since July 2019. It is up 122% in three months, and the stock added another 4.3% on Tuesday.

Blackstone

The investment firm is buying Jersey Mike’s Subs. The news broke Tuesday morning.
Blackstone was up 1% in the session, hitting a new high.
It is up 10% in November.
The stock was a big winner in the second half of Donald Trump’s first term as president. It was up 470% from 2019 to 2021.

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Blackstone shares in the past three months

War

The U.S. admiral in charge of American forces in the Asian-Pacific region was talking about the U.S. supply of air defense anti-missiles on Tuesday. Reuters reported that Admiral Sam Paparo said overseas fighting is “eating into stocks and to say otherwise would be dishonest.” He said it is hurting the readiness of U.S. forces to respond if something bad were to start happening in his region of responsibility.
By now, you also know that Russian President Vladimir Putin announced a change in official nuclear policy that seemingly lowers the threshold for when it might consider using those weapons.
RTX is the main maker of the Patriot missile system, which is capable of shooting down enemy missiles. The stock is 7.6% from the 52-week high hit last month.
Lockheed Martin has contracts with the military. It is expected to increase anti-missile production in the next few years. The stock is 14% from the October high.
Mitsubishi Heavy Industries does the same thing involving the Patriot Missile System in Japan. The stock is 5% from the October high.
This isn’t directly related to missile defense, but AeroVironment makes drones. CEO Wahid Nawabi was on “Mad Money” Tuesday night with Jim Cramer. The stock is 17.6% from the high hit just last week.

Utilities

Three utility companies hit all-time highs on Tuesday: NiSource, Sempra and Vistra.
NiSource is up 15.5% in three months. They have natural gas customers in the great state of Maryland, Virginia, Ohio, Kentucky, Pennsylvania and Indiana.
Shares of Sempra are also up 15.5% in three months. The company’s customers are mostly in California and Texas.
Vistra is up about 92% in three months, and it has gained nearly 24% in November alone. Vistra owns nuclear power plants and solar facilities. More

Lenders often encourage federal student loan borrowers to enroll in automatic payments, offering them a slightly lower interest rate if they do so.
But a new report from the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau shows that the companies can pull incorrect amounts from borrowers’ bank accounts, and that wait times for refunds can stretch on for months.

Boogich | E+ | Getty Images

Lenders often encourage federal student loan borrowers to enroll in automatic payments. It can seem like a good idea to do so: Borrowers don’t need to worry about missing a payment and often get a slightly lower interest rate in exchange.
However, the decision can backfire in a lending space plagued by problems that have “harmed millions of borrowers,” according to a new report by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.

“Unfortunately, autopay errors were one of the most widespread, basic and consequential servicer errors we saw this year,” CFPB Student Loan Ombudsman Julia Barnard told CNBC. “These errors are incredibly costly and completely unacceptable.”
In some cases, borrowers had money pulled from their bank accounts despite never consenting to autopay, Barnard said. Other autopay users saw incorrect amounts taken or were charged multiple times in the same month.
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CNBC wrote in 2023 about a woman who was supposed to have a $0 monthly student loan payment under the plan she was enrolled in, but was charged $2,074 one month. After that unexpected debit, she worried she wouldn’t be able to pay her mortgage.
In March, one borrower told the CFPB that their student loan servicer took $6,897 from their account when they only owed $1,048.

“Borrowers have told the CFPB that these errors have made it hard or impossible for them to cover basic needs like food, medical care and rent,” Barnard said.

What borrowers can do about autopay errors

Despite the issues some student loan borrowers experience, higher education expert Mark Kantrowitz recommends that people remain enrolled in the automatic payments.
After all, it’s one of the only ways to get an interest rate discount, he said. The savings is typically 0.25%.
In addition, he said, “they are less likely to be late with a payment.”
But some borrowers on a tight budget may prefer to forgo those benefits to make sure they’re not overcharged, experts said.

There are steps you can take to protect yourself from incorrect billing, Kantrowitz said.
You can set up an alert with your bank and get notified whenever a debit occurs over a certain amount. If you set that amount a little under what your student loan bill should be, you can use that alert to check that the debit was correct each month and also have a record of your payment history, which can be especially helpful to those working toward loan forgiveness, Kantrowitz said.
If your loan servicer takes the wrong amount from your bank account, you should immediately contact the servicer and demand a refund, Kantrowitz said. You should also ask your servicer to cover any late fees from bounced checks or an overdraft, he said.
Unfortunately, Barnard says, the CFPB has heard from borrowers who weren’t able to get a timely refund.
“We’ve seen instances where borrowers have waited months or even years to receive a refund related to autopay errors,” she said.
As a result, she also suggests borrowers reach out to their bank about the incorrect payment.
“The borrowers’ financial institution may be able to quickly resolve errors in autopay amounts,” she said, so long as the borrower notifies them within 10 business days of the amount being debited.
If you run into a wall with your servicer, you can file a complaint with the Education Department’s feedback system at Studentaid.gov/feedback. Problems can also be reported to the Federal Student Aid’s Ombudsman, Kantrowitz said. More

Congressional lawmakers will soon debate expiring tax breaks and new promises from President-elect Donald Trump.
The debate could be complicated amid competing priorities and concerns over the federal budget deficit.
“This is a lot more complicated than just the reds against the blues,” said Howard Gleckman, a senior fellow at the Urban-Brookings Tax Policy Center.

U.S. President-elect Donald Trump speaks during a meeting with House Republicans at the Hyatt Regency hotel in Washington, D.C., on Nov. 13, 2024.
Allison Robbert | Via Reuters

Congressional lawmakers will soon debate expiring tax breaks and new promises from President-elect Donald Trump.
Agreeing on cuts and spending, however, could be a challenge.

With a majority in the House of Representatives and Senate, Republican lawmakers can pass sweeping tax legislation through “reconciliation,” which bypasses the Senate filibuster. Republicans could begin the budget reconciliation process during Trump’s first 100 days in office.
But choosing priorities could be difficult, particularly amid the federal budget deficit, policy experts said Tuesday at a Brookings Institution event in Washington.
Legislators will be “representing their districts, not their party,” Howard Gleckman, a senior fellow at the Urban-Brookings Tax Policy Center, said Tuesday in a panel discussion at the Brookings event.
“This is a lot more complicated than just the reds against the blues,” he said.
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‘Political divisions’ could be a barrier

With a slim majority in Congress, Republican lawmakers will soon negotiate with several blocks within their party. Some of these groups have competing priorities.
Enacted by Trump in 2017, the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, or TCJA, is a key priority for the next administration.
Without action from Congress, trillions of tax breaks from the TCJA will expire after 2025. These include lower tax brackets, higher standard deductions, a more generous child tax credit, bigger estate and gift tax exemption, and a 20% tax break for pass-through businesses, among other provisions.

The more things you try to bring in, the more potential political divisions we have to navigate.

Molly Reynolds
senior fellow in Governance Studies at Brookings Institution

Tax bill could take longer than expected

Since budget reconciliation involves multiple steps, policy experts say the Republican tax bill could take months.
Plus, Congress has until Dec. 20 to fund the government and avoid a shutdown. A stopgap bill could push the deadline to January or March, which could take time from Trump’s tax priorities.
“The idea that they’re going to do this in 100 days, I think, is foolish,” Gleckman said. “My over-under is Dec. 31, 2025, and that might be optimistic.”
However, the bill could get through by Oct. 1, 2025, which closes the federal government’s fiscal year, other policy experts say.

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The Education Department said the 2025-26 FAFSA is now available to all students and families, ahead of schedule.
Students should file the FAFSA as soon as they can, experts say.

This week, the new Free Application for Federal Student Aid expanded its “phased rollout” so all students can now apply for aid for the upcoming academic year.
Up until Monday, the 2025-26 FAFSA was only available to limited groups of students in a series of beta tests that began on Oct. 1.

Now, the form is open to all and the Department of Education has said it will be out of testing entirely by Nov. 22 — which puts the official launch ahead of schedule. Since Monday, more than 50,000 forms have been successfully submitted, according to a department official.
Typically, all students have access to the coming academic year’s form in October, but last year’s new simplified form wasn’t available until late December after a monthslong delay.
This year, the plan was to be available to all students and contributors on or before Dec. 1.
Students who submit a form during this final “expanded beta” phase before Nov. 22 will not need to submit a subsequent 2025–26 FAFSA form, the Education Department said.
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There are still some issues with the new form, some of which also plagued last year’s college aid application cycle, but they all have workarounds, according to higher education expert Mark Kantrowitz.
Altogether, this year’s rollout is “much better than last year,” he said. 
Last year, complications with the new form resulted in some students not applying at all. Ultimately, that meant fewer students went on to college.

Why it’s important to file the FAFSA early

“Students should take full advantage of the early rollout and submit their FAFSA as soon as possible,” said Shaan Patel, founder and CEO of Prep Expert, which provides Scholastic Aptitude Test and American College Test preparation courses.
The earlier families fill out the form, the better their chances are of receiving aid, since some financial aid is awarded on a first-come, first-served basis, or from programs with limited funds.
“The earlier you apply, the better your chances of securing more aid that doesn’t need to be repaid,” Patel said.
“Submitting early also means you’ll receive your financial aid award letters sooner,” he said. “This gives you ample time to compare offers from different schools and make an informed decision without feeling rushed. Finally, knowing your child’s financial aid status earlier reduces stress and allows your family to focus on other important aspects of college preparation.”

For many students, financial aid is key.
Higher education already costs more than most families can afford, and college costs are still rising. Tuition and fees plus room and board for a four-year private college averaged $58,600 in the 2024-25 school year, up from $56,390 a year earlier. At four-year, in-state public colleges, it was $24,920, up from $24,080, the College Board found.
The FAFSA serves as the gateway to all federal aid money, including federal student loans, work-study and especially grants — which have become the most crucial kind of assistance because they typically do not need to be repaid.
Submitting a FAFSA is also one of the best predictors of whether a high school senior will go on to college, according to the National College Attainment Network. Seniors who complete the FAFSA are 84% more likely to enroll in college directly after high school, according to an NCAN study of 2013 data. 

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