"OASDI" stands for Old Age Survivors and Disability Insurance. The abbreviations references the Social Security programs that provide monthly cash benefits to claimants and their dependents when they retire, to their surviving dependents, and to disabled worker beneficiaries and their dependents. Social Security's Old-Age, Survivors, and Disability Insurance (OASDI) program limits the amount of earnings subject to taxation for a given year. The same annual limit also applies when those earnings are used in a benefit computation. This limit generally increases each year with increases in the national average wage index. Social Security calls this annual limit the contribution and benefit base.