Social Security Benefit to Increase by 0.3 Percent

Continuing last year's trend in which Social Security beneficiaries saw no Cost of Living Adjustment (COLA), the 2017 adjustment will increase payments for retired workers by only 0.3 percent. For the typical retiree, this will raise the monthly benefit by $5 to $1,360. In 2015, the adjustment was 1.7 percent. The last time that the adjustment exceeded 2 percent was in 2012, when the payment rose by 3.6 percent.

The 2017 increase is based on the change in the Consumer Price Index for Urban Wage Earners (CPI-W) from the third quarter of 2014 through the third quarter of 2016. The Medicare Part B premium has not been announced, but it is likely to exceed the Social Security COLA. A fact sheet listing the adjustments to various Social Security payments is available here.

Contact: Darius Kirstein, dkirstein@leadingageny.org, 518-867-8841