Social Security Administration Commissioner Frank Bisignano details efforts to combat waste, fraud and abuse on ‘The Bottom Line’.
announcement of Social Security’s annual inflation adjustment Benefits have been delayed due to the government shutdown, but the agency responsible for handling the benefit increase has set a date for releasing the data next week.
social security benefits Subjects undergo a cost-of-living adjustment (COLA) each year, which updates the benefit amount to account for the previous year’s inflation. The size of the annual COLA is determined by the increase in the Consumer Price Index (CPI) over the previous year.
The Bureau of Labor Statistics releases the CPI on a monthly basis to measure how much high inflation has raised consumer prices. However, September CPI data which was to be released on October 15 and COLA calculations were to be completed, got delayed due to the government shutdown.
The Bureau of Labor Statistics releases the CPI on a monthly basis to measure how much high inflation has raised consumer prices. (Frederick J. Brown/AFP via Getty Images)
The BLS announced that it has recalled some workers who were furloughed due to the government shutdown to allow for the completion of CPI reports and the release of COLA. The BLS will now release the September CPI on Friday, October 24, while the Social Security Administration will announce the 2026 COLA on the same day.
Social Security beneficiaries expected to get big cost-of-living adjustments in 2026
Social Security’s COLA for 2026 is projected at 2.7% to 2.8%. (Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images)
Experts predict 2026 COLA increase social security recipient Benefit payments exceed the 2.5% COLA applicable through 2025.
The Senior Citizens League estimated last month that the COLA for 2026 would be 2.7%, which would increase average monthly benefits. retired employee From $54 to $2,009 to $2,062.
TSCL noted that its estimate is higher than the estimate it made earlier this year, when it had estimated a 2.1% COLA, because “inflation is significantly higher” than its model was estimating.
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Social Security’s COLA adjusts benefits to take into account inflation, which pushes consumer prices higher. (Jeffrey Greenberg/Universal Images Group via Getty Images)
The group also noted that a 2.7% COLA would be average from a historical perspective, as annual benefit adjustments have averaged 2.6% over the past 20 years. The highest COLA over that period was 8.7% in 2023, while the lowest was in 2010 and 2011 when the COLA was zero.
The nonpartisan Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget (CRFB) developed its own forecast for Social Security’s 2026 COLA, which estimates the annual inflation adjustment Will be slightly higher at 2.8%.
