The new Cost of Living Adjustment (COLA) score will be shown in October. It is the job of COLA to make sure that people who get Social Security can keep up with growing prices for things they need every day and stay ahead of inflation.
Experts say that some people who get Social Security Disability Insurance will get an extra $50 a month, even though COLA has not been mentioned yet.
Social Security benefits have been adjusted according to COLA since 1975
The Consumer Price Index from the third quarter of the previous year to the third quarter of this year, which is when the COLA went into effect, is used to figure out the COLA.
Before 1975, laws set the rules for growth in benefits. Once the COLA is announced in October, the benefits will go up in December of that same year. There was a 3.2% change in the COLA for the year 2023/2024.
Social Security payments must be adjusted for cost of living adjustments (COLA), and more and more businesses are starting to do the same.
This year, about half of companies raised their workers’ pay by 3%, which is just below the 3.2% COLA increase and more than that. More and more people want all industries to tie salary raises to COLA so that wages and salaries do not lose their purchasing power.
Social Security Disability Insurance provides benefits to people with a disability which restricts their ability to work
Medicare as well as monthly cash payments are available through SSDI. You must have a condition or be blind and have worked in the past to be eligible for SSDI.
If you are over 24, you must have worked for at least five years in the ten years before you got sick or hurt. Your illness or condition must make it impossible for you to make more than the substantial gainful activity income (SGA).
This year, SGA was set at $1,550 a month, or $2,590 a month for blind people.
The normal SSDI salary in October 2023 was $1,665.14 per month. The most you can get from SSDI each month in 2024 is $3,822.
It is expected that the next COLA number will be 2.5%. To give you an idea, if you were getting $2,000 a month before, you can expect to get $2,050 a month instead. In 2022, it was reported that the 2023 COLA would be a high 8.7%.
In general, though, 2.5% is more in line with past rises.
COLA will effect all Social Security beneficiaries
COLA is not just for people on SSDI. All of your Social Security benefits are changed based on COLA. Since inflation spikes are now easing, the COLA increase for 2025 will be less substantial.
But if you look at COLA numbers from before the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, it is still a bit higher than the average raises from the last ten years, which were 1.52%.
This means that inflation is still going up and has not gone back to the levels seen before the pandemic.
But people who get SSDI might not be able to fully feel the effects of COLA changes. The cost of Medicare premiums is also likely to go up. These are taken out of the accounts of some SSDI recipients immediately every month.
Medicare premium rates are projected to go up by about $10.30 a month in 2025. Beneficiaries can still expect some kind of rise in the amount they get each month, though.
Every year, millions of Americans get money from Social Security. It is a very important thing for handicapped and retired people and their families. Over 9 million Americans were getting SSDI payments by the end of 2020.
Benefits paid to children and spouses of handicapped people are included in this number. About 72% of people who get SSDI are between the ages of 50 and 66, which means that a lot of them may also get retirement payments.
Many disabled people do not have to worry as much about money when they get SSDI. A study done in 2021 found that SSDI payments make people 20% less likely to file for bankruptcy.
