Social security benefits will receive a modest boost in 2025. What you need to know about the COLA increase
Get a small increase in your monthly checks in 2025 if you receive Social Security benefits Social Security Administration Announced Thursday.
The government said the 72.5 million recipients of social security benefits will see a 2.5% cost-of-living adjustment in 2025, starting in January. The annual adjustment will lead to an increase in monthly benefits to beneficiaries for those receiving Social Security benefits, including pension, survivors, Social Security benefits and Supplemental Security Income.
The administration uses COLA to adjust annual benefits for Social Security beneficiaries. The 2.5% increase in 2025 is smaller than the 3.2% increase in 2024 and the 8.7% increase in 2023, and reflects the fact that inflation is cooling.
Beneficiaries should receive a new COLA notice with details of the adjustment in December this year. If you have signed up for a My Social Security account, you will find the notification in the Notification Center when you log in.
Below we explain the details of the 2025 COLA increase and what it means for you.
For more information, don’t miss the Social Security payment schedule and how to apply for Social Security disability insurance.
What is the social security COLA?
The Social Security Administration determines COLA using the Consumer price index for urban wage earners and white-collar workerswhich is a measure of the average price change for consumer goods and services, released monthly by the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The administration uses COLA to adjust annual benefits to reflect payments to Social Security beneficiaries and Supplemental Security Income recipients.
The COLA, announced in October, will come into effect in January of the following year.
Which government benefits make adjustments using COLA?
Social Security isn’t the only government benefit affected by COLA. Social Security disability insurance, Supplemental Security Income, Medicare, and a Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (including food stamps and other programs) all use COLA to account for inflation when setting benefits.
The COLA increase in 2025 is 2.5%
We monitored expert predictions leading up to the official COLA announcement, and those predictions were spot on. The Seniors Associationan impartial interest group for seniors, had done that predicted a 2.5% COLA increase last monthand that’s exactly where the official COLA ended up.
The Senior Citizens League has been predicting a COLA of 2.5% to 2.7% since the beginning of this year and points out that seniors are disappointed that the CPI-W fails to measure inflation as they experience it. The League said in a recent survey of 3,000 older Americans that 72% reported that changing the COLA calculation to an index that better reflects the changing costs of seniors should be a top priority for Congress.
Several factors can affect the amount of money you receive each month, but the 2.5% increase goes to the 72.5 million Americans who receive Social Security and Supplemental Security income. A 2.5% COLA increase will increase the average monthly benefit by approximately $48 per month. The 2025 COLA is lower than the 3.2% in 2024, and much lower than the 8.70% increase in 2023.
COLA increases 2020 – 2025
| Year | Coke increase | % change from the previous year |
|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 2.50% | -0.70% |
| 2024 | 3.20% | -5.50% |
| 2023 | 8.70% | 2.80% |
| 2022 | 5.90% | 4.60% |
| 2021 | 1.30% | -0.30% |
| 2020 | 1.60% |
For more information, learn what to do if you never received your Social Security check and how to determine your Social Security benefits with this free tool.
