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Social Security recipients won’t know how much more they will receive from the annual Cost of Living Adjustment, or COLA, until October. But based on the latest monthly projections, beneficiaries shouldn’t expect a huge increase.
If the COLA were announced today, Social Security recipients would receive a boost of 3.8%, 1.0 percentage point higher than last year’s increase of 2.8%, according to the non-partisan advocacy group The Senior Citizens League. If a 3.8% COLA went into effect, the average benefit for retirees would increase by $77 a month.
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The average retiree currently receives $2,026 per month from Social Security. With the predicted COLA, it would increase to $2,103.
COLA is determined by the CPI-W’s percentage increase in the third quarter of the year - July, August and September. That figure is compiled and then compared to the CPI-W for the same period the previous year. The year-over-year difference is the new COLA payable in the coming year, so a lot could change between now and October.
But with ongoing inflation, the COLA won’t do much to help seniors with living expenses.
“We’re seeing inflation on the rise when more than half of seniors already can’t afford basic living standards. We’re talking about food, a roof over their head, and transportation. Many seniors already have to skip doctor’s appointments due to costs, which costs all of us more in the long run when we swap preventative care for emergency care,” TSCL Executive Director Shannon Benton said.
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Social Security payments already come in about $675 a month lower than the average cost of living and 44% of seniors said they depend entirely on Social Security for their retirement income. TSCL’s 2026 Senior Survey estimates that 57 percent of seniors survive on less than $2,000 a month, while 13 percent get by on less than $1,000, which places an estimated 5.6 million below the federal poverty line.
“Congress and the President must raise benefits so seniors can meet basic cost-of-living standards, for the good of the entire country. When signing Social Security into law, President Roosevelt described the program as `a structure intended to lessen the force of possible future depressions` and `flatten out the peaks and valleys of deflation and of inflation,” Benton said. “In today’s world, with change coming faster than ever, most Americans would tell you that they agree.”
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Social Security recipients will learn the 2027 COLA in October before it goes into effect in January 2027.
COLA history
- 1975 - 8%
- 1976 - 6.4%
- 1977 - 5.9%
- 1978 - 6.5%
- 1979 - 9.9%
- 1980 - 14.3%
- 1981 - 11.2%
- 1982 - 7.4%
- 1983 - 3.5%
- 1984 - 3.5%
- 1985 - 3.1%
- 1986 - 1.3%
- 1987 - 4.2%
- 1988 - 4%
- 1989 - 4.7%
- 1990 - 5.4%
- 1991 - 3.7%
- 1992 - 3%
- 1993 - 2.6%
- 1994 - 2.8%
- 1995 - 2.6%
- 1996 - 2.9%
- 1997 - 2.1%
- 1998 - 1.3%
- 1999 - 2.5%
- 2000 - 3.5%
- 2001 - 2.6%
- 2002 - 1.4%
- 2003 - 2.1%
- 2004 - 2.7%
- 2005 - 4.1%
- 2006 - 3.3%
- 2007 - 2.3%
- 2008 - 5.8%
- 2009 - 0%
- 2010 - 0%
- 2011 - 3.6%
- 2012 - 1.7%
- 2013 - 1.5%
- 2014 - 1.7%
- 2015 - 0%
- 2016 - 0.3%
- 2017 - 2%
- 2018 - 2.8%
- 2019 - 1.6%
- 2020 - 1.3%
- 2021 - 5.9%
- 2022 - 8.7%
- 2023 - 3.2%
- 2024 - 2.5%
- 2025 - 2.8%
Leada Gore has worked with AL.com for 13 years. She’s worked in Alabama journalism for more than 30 years. She now covers breaking and trending news, with a particular emphasis on government, finances and the... more
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