People think of retirement as the end of their working life and a chance to relax and let the government handle everything.
But once you start getting Social Security, it is important to keep your personal information up to date with the Social Security Administration (SSA) so that you can get your benefits correctly and on time.
If you move, get a new bank account, or change your marriage status, you need to let your creditors know right away. These changes can affect how quickly you make your payments.
It is also important to keep your information up to date if you want to cancel your Social Security application, which you can only do twelve months after you first signed up.
Along with having their personal information up to date, one of the most important things for retirees to do is to pay any taxes that may apply to their Social Security benefits.
Also, retirees should keep an eye on the SSA for important news and changes. On October 10th, a big news like this will be made.
The Importance of October 10th for Social Security beneficiaries
People who are retired need to remember October 10th because that is when they should check out the SSA’s online tools. The Social Security Administration will make the cost-of-living adjustment (COLA) announcement for 2025 at this time.
The announcement can be found on the SSA website in the Communications Corner section. It will show the percentage increase in Social Security benefits and the average increase in monthly payments that beneficiaries can expect to receive in the coming year.
The news on October 10th was important because it had to do with inflation data that has a direct effect on Social Security payments. Today is the day that the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) will release its September report on inflation.
The report includes the Consumer Price Index for Urban Wage Earners and Clerical Workers (CPI-W). The CPI-W is used to figure out the cost-of-living increase that Social Security gets every year.
It is possible to find the COLA by comparing the average CPI-W for the third quarter of this year (2024) with the average for the same quarter of the previous year (2023).
The percentage change in the CPI-W shows how much the cost of living has gone up and is used to change Social Security payments. The goal of this change is to keep the worth of benefits up to date with inflation, which will protect beneficiaries’ ability to buy things.
What to Expect for the 2025 Cost-of-Living Adjustment
The official COLA number for 2025 will not come out until October 10th, but experts in the field have already done preliminary studies and predictions that point to a 2.5% change.
If this estimate turns out to be correct, it would mean that recipients would get an extra $48 a month on average. This number, of course, is based on the average payment.
This means that people who get more benefits will see a bigger number, while people who earn less will see a smaller increase in their payment.
This expected rise is less than the 3.2% adjustment made for 2024 and a lot less than the 8.7% adjustment made in 2023.
However, it is closer to the average COLA of 2.6% seen over the last 20 years and is seen as a good sign for the inflation crisis Americans have been going through because of the pandemic.
Once the COLA is made public, the SSA website will have specific information about how much each beneficiary will get in extra payments.
You do not have to worry, though, if you can not get to the website on October 10th. Starting in December, the SSA will send personalized mail alerts to beneficiaries explaining the new benefit amounts and changes that will happen in 2025.
