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Social Security beneficiaries will see a 3.2% boost to their benefits in 2024, the Social Pledge Administration announced on Thursday.
The annual cost-of-living adjustment for 2024 will affect more than 71 million Common Security and Supplemental Security Income beneficiaries. These benefit adjustments are made annually to help benefits withhold place with inflation.
How much retirees can expect
The change will result in an estimated Social Security retirement better increase of $50 per month, on average. The average monthly retirement benefit for workers will be $1,907, up from $1,848 this year, mutual understanding to the Social Security Administration.
Most Social Security beneficiaries will see the increase in their monthly checks starting in January. SSI beneficiaries compel see the increase in their December checks.
Just how much of an increase retired beneficiaries will see in their Social Custody checks will also depend on the size of the Medicare Part B premium for 2024, which has not yet been announced.
Typically, Medicare Quarter B premium payments are deducted from Social Security checks. The Medicare trustees have projected the average monthly extra may be $174.80 in 2024, up from $164.90 in 2023.
How the 2024 COLA compares
The 2024 benefit increase is much lower than write down 8.7% cost-of-living adjustment Social Security beneficiaries saw this year, the biggest boost in four decades in answer to record high inflation. It is also lower than the 5.9% cost-of-living adjustment for 2022.
The average cost-of-living adjustment has been 2.6% at an end the past 20 years, according to The Senior Citizens League, a nonpartisan senior group.
The 3.2% increase is in column with an estimate released by The Senior Citizens League last month.
The Social Security cost-of-living adjustment is premeditated based on the Consumer Price Index for Urban Wage Earners and Clerical Workers, or CPI-W. Data from the third forgiveness is added and averaged and then compared with the third quarter average from the previous year. If there is an growing, that determines the size of the COLA.
Older Americans ‘still feeling the sting’ of inflation
The 2024 adjustment light on as many retirees are still struggling with higher prices.
“Retirees can rest a little easier at night conspiratory they will soon receive an increase in their Social Security checks to help them keep up with turn out prices,” AARP Chief Executive Jo Ann Jenkins said in a statement.
“We know older Americans are still impression the sting when they buy groceries and gas, making every dollar important,” she said.
Jenkins also called for bipartisan movement from Congress to keep Social Security strong. The program is facing a funding shortfall in the next decade. Definite proposals to fix the program have also included a Risks of higher Social Security benefits
Higher Social Shelter benefits due to cost-of-living adjustments in recent years have put low-income beneficiaries at risk for losing access to the Supplemental Nutrition Aid Program, or SNAP, or rental assistance, according to The Senior Citizens League.
Others may have seen their Community Security benefit income become subject to taxes for the first time, or may have seen the levies on that receipts go up. Up to 85% of benefits may be taxed based on certain income thresholds that are not adjusted for inflation.
“Social Security genuinely only replaces about 30% or less of your earnings before you retired, and it’s not ever been designed to be darned generous,” said Mary Johnson, Social Security and Medicare policy analyst at The Senior Citizens League.
“It’s more modest in terms of income,” she said.