(NEXSTAR) – The next cost-of-living adjustment (COLA) for Social Security recipients is projected to be even lower than 2025’s increase of 2.5%, which was also the lowest COLA increase in years.
The Senior Citizens League, a nonpartisan senior advocacy group, released its latest projection this week, estimating that the 2026 adjustment would amount to only a 2.4% increase. The increase was based on April data from the Labor Department concerning inflation and other pricing trends for consumer goods.
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“High inflation during the COVID-19 pandemic led to higher-than-average COLAs of 5.9 percent in 2022 and 8.7 percent in 2023. If TSCL’s prediction for 2026 holds, seniors can expect next year’s COLA to be the lowest since the 1.3 percent implemented in 2021,” TSCL wrote in its latest COLA update.
The amount of next year’s COLA increase, however, won’t be officially announced by the Social Security Administration until October. The 2026 increase will also be based on Labor Department data from the upcoming third quarter (July, August and September) of 2025.
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 CPI-W, which itself is a measure of the change in prices for common consumer goods and services…