Social Security benefits will increase by 2.8 percent in 2026, federal officials have announced, with the inflation-related adjustment boosting payments for an estimated 75 million Americans.
The 2.8 percent cost-of-living adjustment—known as COLA—was announced by the Social Security Administration (SSA) on Oct. 24, the same day that government data on inflation were released. It affects both Social Security benefits and Supplemental Security Income (SSI) payments.
On average, Social Security retirement benefits will rise by around $56 per month due to the adjustment.
The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), which normally releases inflation figures on a monthly basis, said in early October that it would publish September’s Consumer Price Index data—which is used to calculate the Social Security benefit adjustment—on Oct. 24 to allow the SSA to meet statutory deadlines necessary to ensure the accurate and timely payment of benefits. BLS added that no other inflation data releases would be published until the government shutdown ends.
The 2.8 percent COLA for 2026 is 0.1 percentage points higher than the 2.7 percent recently predicted by The Senior Citizens League, a group that issues regular projections for the COLA adjustment based on a predictive model tied to incoming inflation data.
The Senior Citizens League has been advocating for a change to the way COLA is calculated. Currently, the adjustment is based on the CPI-W index, which tracks inflation for people who live and work in cities. The group says that a different measure, the CPI-E, should be used instead, because it better reflects seniors’ budgets and tends to come in a bit higher.
“Continuing to calculate COLAs with the CPI-W when the CPI-E is already available is a great example of how Congress refuses to make even small changes that would benefit seniors,” Executive Director Shannon Benton said in a recent statement. “It’s not as if switching to the CPI-E would involve setting up some new metric. It already exists, and by definition, it’s better for American seniors.”
Government inflation data released on Oct. 24 by the BLS shows that CPI-W came in at 2.9 percent over the 12 months through September.
Social Security benefits will increase by 2.8 percent in 2026, federal officials have announced, with the inflation-related adjustment boosting payments for an estimated 75 million Americans.
