The Social Security Administration announced on Wednesday, Oct. 14, that benefits will increase by 3.6 percent for 2027 through its annual cost-of-living adjustment, known as COLA.
The adjustment translates to roughly $75 more per month for the average retired worker. Average disability and survivor benefits are expected to increase by about $59 monthly.
Those are averages, not uniform increases for every recipient. The dollar change depends on the person’s benefit amount.
For example, a monthly benefit of $2,000 would increase by $72 before deductions, bringing it to $2,072. A $1,500 benefit would increase by $54, to $1,554.
The higher Social Security payments begin in January 2027 and reflect benefits for December. Supplemental Security Income recipients will receive their adjusted payments at the end of December.
The increase exceeds this year’s 2.8 percent adjustment and the 2.5 percent increase for 2025, according to SSA’s COLA information and historical figures.
It also ties the adjustment to the one paid in 2012. Only four annual increases for benefit years since 1993 were larger: those paid in 2006, 2009, 2022, and 2023, based on SSA’s historical table.
Still, a larger adjustment does not necessarily mean beneficiaries are getting ahead financially. COLAs are intended to help benefits keep pace with rising prices.
The calculation uses changes in the Consumer Price Index for Urban Wage Earners and Clerical Workers, comparing the third-quarter average with the corresponding average used for the previous adjustment.
That broad inflation measure does not track each household’s individual expenses. What the increase means for a particular budget will depend on the costs that household faces.
Personalized notices detailing the adjustment will be available through individual my Social Security accounts and mailed by December. Those notices will provide beneficiaries with their own updated payment information.
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