(NEXSTAR) – Last month, the Social Security Administration announced a 2.8% cost-of-living adjustment (COLA) for Social Security beneficiaries and Supplemental Security Income recipients.
The increase, which is slightly larger than the 2.5% bump announced for beneficiaries last year, is designed to help recipients of Social Security and Supplemental Security Income retain their buying power amid inflation, which has caused rising prices on everything from energy to gas to groceries.
But while the SSA’s 2.8% adjustment is based on rising costs in 2025, the increased benefits won’t be doled out until 2026 for the majority of recipients.
When will the 2.8% COLA take effect?
Social Security recipients will see the 2.8% increase to their benefits in January 2026. Depending on the recipient’s birthday, however, some beneficiaries will get their funds sooner than others: Those born within the 1st through the 10th of any given month are paid on the second Wednesday of each month; those born within the 11th through the 20th are paid on the third Wednesday; and those born from the 21st to the end of any given month are paid on the fourth Wednesday.
Those receiving Supplemental Security Income (SSI) will get their first increased benefits a bit sooner, on Dec. 31, 2025, according to the Social Security Administration. This is because Jan. 1, — aka New Year’s Day — is a federal holiday.
Subsequent payments are disbursed monthly, typically on the 1st of each month. If that date were to fall on a Saturday, a Sunday or a holiday, SSI payments would be disbursed on the latest business day of the previous month.
How much more should beneficiaries expect?
Several factors determine the benefit amount disbursed to a Social Security recipient, including their former earnings, the time frame in which they collected their salaries, and their age at retirement. But the average benefit for a retired worker, as of August 2025, was estimated to be just under $2,008 per month.
Based on this figure, an increase of 2.8% would net the average retiree an extra $56 per month.
Payments for SSI recipients also vary based on factors including employment status, disability benefits or outside earnings, but the maximum benefits are currently set at $967 monthly for individuals, or $1,450 for couples.
A 2.8% cost-of-living adjustment would increase the individual maximum monthly payment to $994, and the couples’ maximum monthly payment to $1,491.
Will it be enough?
Despite these increases, an advocacy group working to protect the benefits of America’s senior citizens has argued that 2026’s COLA — or any COLA in recent years — is not sufficient to cover the rising costs that retirees are paying for things such as housing, groceries or healthcare.
“The 2026 COLA is going to hurt for seniors,” Shannon Benton, the executive director of The Senior Citizens League, wrote shortly after the 2026 COLA was announced. “Year after year, they warn that Social Security’s meager increases won’t be enough, and the Census Bureau estimates that about 10 percent of retirement-age Americans live in poverty.”
TSCL has instead proposed that the Social Security Administration stop basing its COLA increases on data from the Consumer Price Index for Urban Wage Earners and Clerical Workers (CPI-W), but rather the Consumer Price Index for the Elderly (CPI-E) — which is “specifically based on the spending patterns of Americans 62 years of age and older,” according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
TSCL has also voiced support for a system they call “CPI Best,” which means basing each year’s COLA increase on the highest of three options: the CPI-W, the CPI-E, or a minimum increase of 3%.
The same group had also proposed a one-time “make-up payment” of $1,400 for eligible seniors.
“COLA needs to reflect the cost of aging — not just the cost of inflation,” Benton told Nexstar last month. “The formula used for COLA calculations is outdated and doesn’t reflect what seniors actually spend money on, such as healthcare, rent, and prescription drugs. It’s time for a fix.”