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Social Security Benefits Likely to Increase, Even Without Biden Action
While President Biden did mention a number of changes he wanted to make to Social Security in the campaign, recipients need not wait for any of them to get a monthly benefit increase starting January 1, 2022. That’s because cost of living adjustments (COLAs) are built in and automatically tied to the inflation and not any action by Congress and/or The Administration. Christy Bieber explains COLAs can be zero or very small as in 2021 where seniors received a mere 1.3% raise, or less than $20 extra per month for most retirees. Things look quite different for 2022. COLAs are determined based on year-over-year price changes in the Consumer Price Index for Urban Wage Earners and clerical workers (CPI-W). The CPI-W results for the third quarter, which starts today (July 1, 2021), of each year are compared to the results from the year prior to estimate how much prices have increased. Read Bieber’s full piece here.