There are not long left until we find out what will happen to the new Social Security checks. We will now explain why this is important to you. Not only how much money it is, but also what the net effect will be when the economy’s behavior is taken into account. Read on to learn more about how to get your Social Security raise and what the future holds for you.
How do Social Security checks get updated?
Every year, Social Security checks are changed. This fix has a simple goal that hasn’t changed since 1975: to keep inflation under control. When the market changes, prices tend to go up and money’s value goes down. This means that over time, the same amount of money can buy the same amount of things and services.
Even though people who work also have to deal with this in their daily lives, it can be easier to handle when their pay are changed, they get a raise, or they just switch jobs. These easy steps will help them get more money to make up for the fact that over time, they lose buying power.
When you buy, the same thing happens. Most financial experts will tell you that to keep your money’s buying power, you should get an interest rate that is at least as high as inflation. But the money people get from their Social Security checks is easier to handle than any of those other scenarios.
After you start getting any kind of benefit check, there aren’t many ways to make that money go further, let alone make it keep up with inflation. Also, Social Security checks may be the only money you get all year, which makes them even more important to your health.
That’s why the government set up a way for Social Security benefits to keep their buying power by using an index that tracks inflation. The cost-of-living adjustment (COLA) is the name of this measure. It’s easy to figure out how to determine COLA. Prices of goods and services and how they change over time are the most important pieces of knowledge.
A consumer price index called CPI-W, or Consumer Price Index for Urban Wage Earners and Clerical Workers, is used to do this. It groups and tracks the prices of about 200 goods and services and then gives them weights based on the wants and needs of families where at least half of the income comes from wage-paying or clerical jobs.
Every month, this data is made by the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). For COLA, only the numbers from the third quarter of the year (July, August, and September) are averaged and compared to the same data points from the year before. In October, this is done.
The only CPI-W number that is still unknown for this year is for September. It will be released on October 10 at 8:30 AM ET. After that, usually in December, you’ll get a letter telling you that the amount of your Social Security checks went up. You can see the same information in the “Message Center” of your “My Social Security” account on the SSA’s website.
What is the most likely value for the following Social Security checks?
According to the most current report from The Senior Citizens League, a group whose job it is to protect the rights and well-being of seniors, the COLA will be about 2.5%. This is in line with the fact that the inflation rate has been going down since March 2024.
Even though COLA won’t have a direct effect on your Social Security checks, it’s still a good idea to give an estimate of a raise for each of the following programs:
| Program | Average Payment | Increased Payment |
| Old Age Insurance | $1,872.09 | $1,918.89 |
| Survivor | $1,509.36 | $1,547.09 |
| Disability Insurance | $1,402.69 | $1,437.76 |
| SSI (Supplemental Security Income) | $698.51 | $715,97 |