3 Social Security COLA Dates To Know for 2025
Written by
Vance Cariaga
Edited by
Amber Barkley
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The Social Security Administration (SSA) recently announced that beneficiaries will get a 2.5% cost-of-living adjustment (COLA) in 2025. The new adjustment will boost the average retirement check by $48 a month, according to The Senior Citizens League.
The 2025 COLA is the lowest since 2021 and down from 3.2% this year, mainly because of the nation’s falling inflation rate. Over the last decade, the COLA increase has averaged about 2.6%, according to the SSA. The COLA formula is based on third-quarter inflation as measured by the Consumer Price Index for Urban Wage Earners and Clerical Workers (CPI-W).
Nearly 68 million Social Security beneficiaries will see a 2.5% COLA beginning in January 2025. However, some beneficiaries will get a higher payment a little earlier than that. Here’s a look at three important dates to know regarding the 2025 COLA.
Early December 2024
The SSA will begin notifying people about their new benefit amount by mail starting in early December, the agency said in an Oct. 10 press release. No specific date was provided.
If you choose to get your notice by mail, you can expect a “newly designed and improved” COLA notice that aims to make it easier to find the information you need. The simplified notice is now only one page, uses “plain and personalized” language, and provides exact dates and dollar amounts of benefit amounts and any deductions, the SSA announced in a YouTube video.
If you have a “my Social Security” account, you can view your COLA notice online. You also can set up text or email alerts when there’s a new message — such as a COLA notice — in your my Social Security inbox. You’ll need to have an account set up by Nov. 20, 2024, to see your COLA notice online. If you still need to set up your account, you can do that on the my Social Security website.
Dec. 31, 2024
This is the date when the 2025 COLA will be reflected in payments to the nearly 7.5 million people who receive Supplemental Security Income (SSI) benefits. Some people receive both Social Security benefits and SSI.
Jan. 8, 2025
This is when the first regular Social Security payments with the new COLA will be issued — the second Wednesday of the month. The first payments will be distributed to recipients whose birthdates fall on the 1st through the 10th.
Here’s the rest of the January schedule:
- Jan. 15 (second Wednesday): Payments issued to those with birthdates that fall on the 11th through the 20th.
- Jan. 22 (third Wednesday): Payments issued to those with birthdates that fall on the 21st through the 31st.
Another adjustment that takes effect in 2025 involves Social Security payroll taxes. Beginning on Jan. 1, the maximum amount of earnings subject to the Social Security tax is scheduled to increase to $176,100 from $168,600 in 2024.
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