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    The estimated Social Security increase for 2025 keeps dropping

    By Michael Bartiromo,

    4 hours ago

    https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?url=3pSoUU_0vUEzrgg00

    (NEXSTAR) – The next cost-of-living increase for Social Security recipients — which was already projected to be the lowest in years — is continuing to fall even lower, according to the latest figures from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

    Based on the department’s consumer price index (CPI) data through August, Social Security recipients might expect a 2.5% cost-of-living adjustment (COLA) to their payments next year, according to The Senior Citizen’s League (TSCL), a nonpartisan senior advocacy group.

    Social Security calculator: Figure out your monthly benefits

    That’s lower than the 2.63% estimated in July and the 2.57% estimated in August. It would also be the lowest increase since 2021, when beneficiaries were given a 1.3% bump.

    “A COLA of 2.5% would raise the average monthly benefit for retired workers of $1,920 by $48,” the group wrote in a Wednesday press release.

    Social Security cost-of-living adjustment

    The Social Security Administration’s yearly cost-of-living adjustments are designed to help Social Security and Supplemental Security Income (SSI) recipients retain their buying power amid rising inflation. These increases, which are issued annually, are determined using the Bureau of Labor’s consumer price index, which itself is a measure of the change in prices for common consumer goods and services.

    Here’s what your Social Security COLA bump could be in 2025

    Because of record inflation in previous years, the COLA had reached as high as 8.7% in 2023, but fell to 3.2% in 2024. Cooling inflation numbers continue to bring the COLA estimate down.

    At 2.5%, however, the projected increase isn’t so “far from the historical norm,” The Senior Citizen’s League noted. (The COLA had actually dipped to 0.0 multiple times over the last 15 years.) But the group still feels that the prices seniors pay for medication, housing and groceries is not accurately reflected by the Labor Department’s figures.

    Voters across the country agree on these Social Security fixes

    “This year’s COLA will be important because many seniors said it didn’t keep up with their real-life expenses last year,” TSCL wrote in a June report. “Among the roughly 1,550 participants in TSCL’s 2024 Senior Survey, 69 percent said their household costs rose faster than the COLA last year, with costs for food and housing leading the way.”

    Social Security COLA projections

    The Senior Citizen’s League releases its COLA projections each month. The official COLA is determined by the Labor Bureau’s revised CPI-W data from July, August and September.

    Social Security: Where do Democrats and Republicans stand

    Next year’s cost-of-living adjustment will be announced by the Social Security Administration in mid-October, upon the release of September’s data.

    Copyright 2024 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

    For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to NewsNation.

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    Comments / 7
    Add a Comment
    Lilli
    37m ago
    This sucks. We need every penny that we worked for all our lives thru SS. How about cutting salaries of the politicians who are making big bucks and not doing a damn thing to help the average American people.
    Dale Everett
    1h ago
    take some money biden and blinken give to ukraine and put into social security they took yrs ago and give seniors a better raise corrupt government
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