I don’t know if you would necessarily say this is good news or bad news, but considering increases to Social Security checks on a annual basis is never a given I would lean toward this being good news.
Social Security’s Office of chief actuary estimated that a cost of living adjustment (COLA) for Social Security recipients is expected to be between 0.0 percent and 0.7 percent for next year. The “intermediate estimate” for an increase next year is 0.2 percent. Obviously this will not be real noticeable on Social Security checks, but it’s better than nothing.
Social Security’s automatic COLA estimates are based on increases in the Consumer Price Index for Urban Wage Earners and Clerical Workers (CPI-W). The increase in next year’s benefits is based on the increase in the third quarter average CPI-W for 2016 over the average CPI-W for the last base quarter, meaning the third quarter of 2014. So, basically you want to look at the CPI-W every third quarter and look at how it compares to the previous year.
Keep in mind this is a very early projection, so the COLA increase in 2017 could be anywhere from 0 to 0.7 percent.
We don’t expect Social Security recipients to be jumping up and down for joy at the news that they might see a slight increase in their Social Security monthly pay, but projections are more promising for years to follow. According to Social Security’s estimates, for 2018 the intermediate increase is estimated to be about 2.9 percent with an estimated maximum COLA increase of 3.7 percent. The following year, in 2019, the intermediate increase is supposed to be about 2.6 percent and the maximum increase about 3.2 percent. It would be nice if future increases were higher, but at least things are moving in the right direction.
