As of today, getting an annual COLA is certainly good news for Americans. If we have access to a Social Security payment we automatically have access to an annual COLA increase. This gives United States retirees the ability to directly address price inflation. Without the COLA, it is possible that these retirees would struggle financially.
However, the COLA is not always that great. Sometimes we encounter a COLA of 9% and sometimes we encounter a COLA of just 3%. It all depends on a number of factors and retirees cannot control what the increase in this benefit will be, they have to accept whatever Social Security increase the US government deems appropriate.
Key dates for the 2025 Social Security COLA
In each year we can find certain key dates to be able to know the day we will get next year’s COLA. In this year 2024 we find that we still do not know the date when the United States Government will announce the increase, but we can know an estimated date.
The usual in these cases is that we should take into account the last weeks of October. In this month we will have available the exact amount of the COLA for next year. But not only that date is important for the COLA. It is also important to know that the months of July, August and September are critical to be able to determine the amount of the COLA.
Price inflation in these three months are the basis that the United States Government takes to announce the final COLA figure. For that reason, knowing this is also very important. It is the CPI-W increase in the third quarter of the year that determines the final figure.
So if we check inflation in these three months we can get a slight idea of how much Social Security benefits will increase in 2025. It’s still early to talk numbers, but it’s good to know that we’ll have some more information on this soon.
Can I increase my Social Security benefit?
We intentionally cannot increase Social Security checks once we have started collecting them. That is, if we retire, we cannot increase our monthly benefit. However, if we have not yet applied for a monthly check, we may be able to do something to get a little more money each month.
Retirement payment depends on three elements: Retirement age, years worked and salary during those years. If we maximize these three elements we can achieve a much larger check. To do this, the ideal is to apply for retirement at age 70, have worked for 35 years and have earned a high salary during that time.
