Social Security Payments To Increase By $20 A Month
By Jim Donovan: Millions of older Americans who rely on federal Social Security benefits will get a 1.7 percent increase in their monthly payments next year, the government announced Wednesday. The increase amounts to about $20 a month for the typical Social Security recipient.
It's the third year in a row the increase will be less than 2 percent. The annual cost-of-living adjustment, or COLA, affects payments to more than 70 million Social Security recipients, disabled veterans and federal retirees.
The COLA is calculated by comparing consumer prices in July, August and September each year with prices in the same three months from the previous year. If prices go up over the course of the year, benefits go up, starting with payments delivered in January.