Social Security cost-of-living adjustment could be 3% — or lower — next year
CBSN
Seniors and millions of others on Social Security get an annual cost-of-living adjustment (or COLA) that's geared toward aligning their monthly checks with inflation. Next year, that COLA could be 3% — or even lower — based on recent inflationary trends, according to an early estimate from the Senior Citizens League.
The estimate is based on the 12-month average rate for the Consumer Price Index for Urban Wage Earners and Clerical Workers (CPI-W), a basket of goods and services typically bought by workers, according to Mary Johnson, the Social Security and Medicare policy analyst at the Senior Citizens League.
That 12-month average has been declining, even when inflation increased month-to-month as it did in January, she noted. Although inflation trends could change, price increases are now easing despite remaining well above the Federal Reserve's target of 2% annually.