The US federal agency has declared that, starting on October 1st, it will raise the monthly compensation for the SSI program’s most needy beneficiaries. Future evaluations will decide whether or not each beneficiary is eligible for an increase in Social Security benefits based on their unique situation. Support from other family members used to be considered income for SSI beneficiaries. Through this action, the SSA hopes to streamline the application procedure and increase the number of individuals who are eligible for Supplemental Security Income (SSI) benefits.
Social Security Confirms New Check Increase
Rising concerns about the COLA increase have been observed this year, particularly among elderly workers who believe that the impending boost will not be sufficient to meet their expenses. In the United States, as inflation and general costs rise, many individuals are wondering how they would handle this scenario if the next increase in the cost of living index is not large enough. For example, the nonpartisan Senior Citizens League projects a far lower 2025 COLA for beneficiaries, which based on the most recent estimates may be as low as 2.73% to 3.2%. In other words, beneficiaries will, in the best-case scenario, receive the same rise as in 2024.
Social Security recipients have seen a significant increase in their monthly benefits over the past three years, with cost-of-living adjustments of 5.9% (2022), 8.7% (2023), and 3.2% (2024). For comparison, the COLA average during the previous 20 years was 2.6%. Recipients anticipate an above-average increase in 2025. The much-awaited April inflation report from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics was released on May 15 and provided hints about the trend of collective prices. Over the past 12 months, the CPI-W has climbed by 3.4%, which is still much higher than the Federal Reserve’s long-term goal of a 2% prevalent rate of inflation.
Importance of Social Security COLA
In a nutshell, the Social Security Administration (SSA) uses the COLA to adjust for fluctuations in the cost of goods and services. In an ideal world, Social Security benefits would grow by the same amount if, for instance, the cost of a wide range of goods and services that seniors frequently purchase rises from year to year in order to prevent them from losing purchasing power. What Social Security’s COLA aims to do is maintaining benefits levels relative to inflation.
