Social Security’s 2027 COLA could be largest since 2023: Will it help retirees?
Social Security recipients are on pace to receive the highest Cost of Living Adjustments in four years. But that’s not necessarily good news.
Advocacy group The Senior Citizens League’s latest estimate predicts the 2027 COLA will be 3.6%. The COLA was 2.8% in 2026, 2.5% in 2025, and 3.2% in 2024. It was 8.7% in 2023, as post-COVID inflation reached its peak.
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The official numbers will be announced by the Social Security Administration on Oct. 14. The annual increase is calculated by taking the average yearly change in the Consumer Price Index for Urban Wage Earners and Clerical Workers (CPI-W) for July, August and September.
Stubbornly high inflation is behind this year’s uptick.
But it’s inflation – coupled with rising Medicare costs – that will eat away at much of the 2027 increase. From 2010 to 2019, the COLA—and inflation as measured by the CPI-W—averaged approximately 1.4%, TSCL said.
“Seniors don’t experience inflation as a percentage on a chart. They experience it at the grocery store, at the pharmacy, in their insurance premiums and when they pay the rent,” TSCL Executive Director Shannon Benton said in a statement. “That’s why the size of the COLA matters, but so does how accurately it reflects their real-world expenses.”
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“Frankly, it’s infuriating that seniors must wait for a COLA to catch up with prices that have already driven up their grocery bills, housing costs, healthcare expenses and insurance premiums. A higher COLA is welcome, but seniors shouldn’t have to lose purchasing power year after year before Washington acknowledges what they’re experiencing,” she added.
If the COLA were announced today, the average monthly benefit would rise by $69.75, from $1,937 to $2,007.
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