Over 46 million Social Security beneficiaries are retired workers, with data from the Social Security Administration showing that 62% of retirees leaning on their payout to account for at least half of their monthly income. October will unveil the program’s cost-of-living adjustment, or COLA. COLA is the “raise” that beneficiaries receive to account for the inflation they’re contending with.
According to an estimate from The Senior Citizens League (TSCL), a Washington-based nonprofit group that tracks issues of concern to older Americans, the raise could be as low as 1.3%. The estimate would lift the average monthly benefit, which is currently around $1,503, to $1,522. Disabled workers and their dependents would see a similar increase which could raise their average monthly benefit to around $1,274.
The majority of respondents to the latest poll agreed with the estimate from TSCL, and responded that the expected increase would be around 1.3%. The majority of respondents to our LinkedIn poll also voted in favor of the 1.3% increase. There where two smaller groups that responded equally with there not being a raise and with the raise being around 2%.
The COLA increase in 2020 was 1.6% and in 2019 there was a 2.8% increase, with the current raise to be the lowest in years. The official announcement of the COLA increase is fast-approaching – if you would like to find out more about your Social Security status and estimates, check out https://www.ssa.gov/myaccount/ to set up an account and access your personalized retirement benefit estimate.
