The Social Security cost-of-living adjustment is coming -- but it won't be as big as this year's
Social Security's cost-of-living increase for 2024 will be announced Thursday
WASHINGTON — Looking ahead to retirement next spring, Karla Abbott finds comfort in the cost-of-living increase that millions of Social Security recipients get each year. But with consumer prices easing, the new boost will be far lower than this year's 8.7%
Analysts estimate the adjustment for 2024 will be around 3.2%.
After working 38 years as a nurse, the 61 years-old Sioux Falls, South Dakota, resident says she’s been saving for retirement since she was 18. But she isn’t certain that it will be enough, even with her Social Security benefits.
Still, she said Social Security's annual cost-of-living increases provide some support as she and her husband plan out their non-working years. “The increases will be helpful, certainly to those of us who are still doing the math on retirement," she said.
Every year the agency adjusts its benefits, based on inflation. The 2024 Social Security cost of living increase — or COLA — is to be announced on Thursday.
The program pays roughly $1.4 trillion in benefits to more than 71 million people each year, including low-income individuals with disabilities.
Charles Blahous, a former Social Security trustee, said the annual COLA announcement is a reminder about the program's stressed finances. “This is an important system, and we need to restore its solvency, because if lawmakers can’t do that, then Social Security and its basic financing design would have to be abandoned," he said.
The annual Social Security and Medicare trustees report released in March said the program’s trust fund will be unable to pay full benefits beginning in 2033. If the trust fund is depleted, the government will be able to pay only
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