If you have filled your car with gas or gone shopping at the grocery store over the past few months, you have probably experienced sticker shock. Prices for many products have skyrocketed compared to the prices last year. That means that for many people, including seniors, buying the essentials is getting more and more expensive.
Approximately 66 million Americans receive Social Security checks each month. Most of these people are senior citizens, but there are also millions of Americans who receive “survivor benefits.” This includes approximately 9 million disabled workers and 6 million widows and children.
Each year the Social Security Administration looks at the inflation in the third quarter of the year and uses that number to decide how much to increase the payment for Social Security checks. Some years there is no increase. This year, those who receive Social Security benefits will see the highest inflation increase since 1981.
When the Social Security Administration looked at inflation for the months of July through September, they saw that inflation had increased 8.2%. They decided to bump up the Social Security benefit payments by 8.7%. For the average Social Security beneficiary, the payment per month in 2022 was $1681. With this cost of living adjustment (COLA), the checks in 2023 will be increased to $1827.
The increase in payments takes effect December 2022, but the checks for December 2022 are sent in January 2023. That means that seniors and other beneficiaries will receive their first social security payments with the COLA of 8.7% in January. When exactly in January depends on the beneficiary’s birthday.
Beneficiaries who were born between the 1st and 10th of their birth month will receive their payments on the 2nd Wednesday in January. Beneficiaries who were born between the 11th and 20th of their birth month will receive their payments on the 3rd Wednesday of January. Meanwhile, beneficiaries born between the 21st and 31st of their birth month will receive the payments on the 4th Wednesday in January.
Watch the video below to learn more about this COLA.
While a COLA sounds like a good thing, it may not be enough to help some seniors. Some people disagree with the way the Social Security Administration decides how much to bump up the payments. In order to figure out inflation, the Social Security Administration looks at the Consumer Price Index for Urban Wage Earners and Clerical Workers (CPI-W). This index largely takes into account things that people of working age have to pay for on a regular basis, like the price of transportation; however, it largely leaves out the price of things seniors have to pay for on a regular basis, such as medical costs.
