In the United States, the Social Security Administration sends retirement checks to beneficiaries every month. The amount of these checks is determined by several factors such as years worked and retirement age. In addition, each year the retirement checks increase slightly.
This increase is called the Cost of Living Adjustment and it means that each and every retiree can reach a higher benefit amount on an annual basis. The also known as COLA takes effect on each and every Social Security check and getting it is very easy. Generally, any United States citizen should have access to this type of increase.
However, there is a group of Americans who will not be able to access the Social Security COLA as of January 2024. This group will be Americans who do not have any Social Security benefits. And the main requirement to obtain the COLA increase is none other than having some type of benefit. Having that, the rest of the actions will be very easy.
HOW TO GET THE SOCIAL SECURITY COLA?
As a matter of fact, the COLA increase is automatic every year. This means that you don’t have to do anything at all to get the Social Security Administration to pay you a little extra money starting in January of the following year. So if you have a Social Security check, you won’t have to do anything to start collecting extra money soon.
The SSA payment will increase by 3.2% starting in January 2024. This increase will be for each and every Social Security beneficiary. However, not all beneficiaries will get the payment on the same day. As usual, the schedule of payments will follow the same order as always.
Therefore, pre-1997 retirees will be able to collect the first of the COLA payments on the 3rd of January, but the rest of the beneficiaries will have that increase after the second week of the month.
Regardless of what we do, our check will increase a little in January 2024 and will do so for the rest of the year. Then, in October, the Administration will again announce another COLA increase for 2025 Social Security checks.
WHAT WILL THE MAXIMUM SSA CHECK BE IN 2024?
The maximum Social Security payment in 2023 is $4,555. This maximum payment will go to $4,700 starting in January 2024. Even so, all payments sent by the Administration in this year will have the increase.
Therefore, it is not necessary to have the maximum retirement check to get a payment increase in this year 2024. Likewise, other payments, such as Supplemental Security Income, will also increase in amount.
In the case of SSI, Social Security will pay a maximum check of $943 starting in January 2024, although not all Americans will reach that large figure. Everyone will get their own personalized increase based on how much money they currently get.