One of the most commonly heard words in recent months in the United States is inflation. With this steady increase in prices across the board, the Social Security Administration sees an obligation to do something serious to avoid problems. For that reason, the COLA this year may be very large. There is no possibility of having a small COLA for benefit increases in 2023. At the moment, inflation is not stopping and that will mean that Social Security will need to increase all benefits a lot.
And we find that a $159 increase in Social Security benefits is possible. We are talking about an average benefit, of course. Not all beneficiaries would get the same amount of money in the increase, because it is a percentage. This benefit depends on the CPI-W increase in the months of July, August and September, i.e., the months of the third quarter of the year.
How much will Social Security increase the COLA?
According to data from The Motley Fool, Social Security’s COLA increase could be as much as $159 on average. This means that the percentage increase will be around 9%, although the data is not yet official. To know the real increase we will have to wait until October. In this month the SSA will announce what the total increase for benefits will be as of January of next year.
For the time being, we can say with certainty that the CPI-W increase is 8.5 in July. With this data we can say with certainty that the COLA will increase Social Security, more or less, by that amount. We still have to wait for the August increase, but it is very possible that the final increase will be close to that amount. Remember that it is not necessary to do anything to receive the COLA increase, as it is fully automatic. It is also important to remember that these increases apply to all Social Security benefits, as well as SSI.