Beginning with the turn of the New Year, Social Security recipients will see an average increase of about $56 per month in Social Security payments due to the annual Cost-of-Living Adjustment (COLA).

The 2.8 percent increase in benefits will apply to Social Security retirement and Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) recipients, as well as Supplemental Security Income (SSI) recipients. That is roughly a $672 annual increase for the average Social Security recipient.

The agency’s COLA is based on consumer inflation data based on the Consumer Price Index for Urban Wage Earners and Clerical Workers from the third quarter of 2024 to the third quarter of 2025. A year ago, the more than 72 million Social Security and SSI beneficiaries received a COLA increase of 2.5 percent.

The 2.8 percent increase is a slight uptick from the projection issued by the Senior Citizens League, which estimated a 2.7 percent increase a couple of months ago. Although the 2.8 percent increase is slightly higher than a year ago, it is less than half the increase from 2023 when COLA was 8.7 percent, which was the largest increase since 1981.

For more information regarding the 2026 COLA increase and to see how you might be impacted visit www.ssa.org.