With each new year that begins, citizens in the United States may see certain changes. These changes can be seen much better in retirement checks. And that is that each new year retirees with a benefit may receive an increase in their Social Security checks.
Each new year’s increase in retirement depends on a number of factors. And, in addition, it should be noted that this increase occurs only once a year. Therefore, this means that retirees with a Social Security may not see a mid-year increase in checks.
Since at the beginning of 2023, the Social Security Administration increased the checks through COLA, the increase is already done. So it is impossible to see an increase again for this year. However, we will see an increase in 2024. While we don’t yet know the amount, we may soon begin to get a glimpse of an approximation.
What we do know for sure is that the maximum check will no longer be $4,555. Also, the Supplemental Security Income payment will go from $914 per month to slightly more, depending on the final COLA increase. All retirement-related checks will increase.
HOW MUCH WILL RETIREMENT CHECKS INCREASE IN 2024?
Retirement payments will see an increase starting with the first check in 2024. Interestingly, this check will not arrive in 2024, but earlier. And that is because the first of the 2024 Social Security calendar payments is the January Supplemental Security Income.
Since January 1st is a holiday, the payment is sent on the immediately preceding business day. This results in the first check with the COLA of the year being mailed on the 29th day of December 2023.
As for the check increase, everything will depend on inflation in the current months. July, August and September are the key months to find out how much each check will increase in 2024.
The Social Security Administration will announce the new COLA in mid-October. Experts are talking about an increase of about 3%. This increase will be much less than the current year’s increase. And that’s because in 2023 we saw a record high COLA as retirement checks increased by 8.7%.
In conclusion, the reason we won’t see a new increase is because there is only one Social Security increase per year. And this increase will be announced in October. After that, we will have to wait until early next year to see the increase.
This will push the maximum checks of $4,555 a month to higher. So citizens with a maximum retirement will see a considerable increase. Still, remember that these increases are a percentage, so the increase will be made equally to all retirees.