The bad economy has one benefit foir those receiving monthly Social Security checks abased on the Cost of Living adjusmnet in the program….
The Social Security Administration is getting ready to announce the cost-of-living adjustment (COLA) for Social Security beneficiaries in 2023, and it’s expected to be a sizable increase.
The adjustments, which are designed to help Social Security and Supplemental Security Income (SSI) payments keep pace with inflation, are calculated each year based on recent increases in the Consumer Price Index for Urban Wage Earners and Clerical Workers (CPI-W), which itself is one of several price indexes calculated by the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The CPI-W, essentially, is a measure of the change in prices “for a market basket of consumer goods and services,” the BLS writes.
Based on recent CPI-W data, the COLA adjustment for 2023 is expected to be one of the largest in decades: the nonprofit Senior Citizen’s League most recently projected an 8.7% increase in benefits based on the latest CPI-W.
At such an adjustment, the average retiree benefit — $1,656 — would increase by $144.10.
“A COLA of 8.7% is extremely rare and would be the highest ever received by most Social Security beneficiaries alive today,”….