Social Security COLA 2024: First Payment Date for New Increased Amount

Social Security beneficiaries will receive a 3.2% increase in benefits next year, but won't know the exact amount until December.

The cost-of-living adjustment (COLA) increase for monthly Social Security benefit payments is set to take effect in 2023, but there is an interesting twist that means it will come sooner than usual.

According to the Senior Citizen League, a non-partisan advocacy group for seniors, Social Security beneficiaries can expect a 3.2% increase in their benefits next year. This prediction aligns with the official announcement of the COLA increase.

While the increase has been announced, recipients won't know the exact amount of their payment increase until December when the Social Security agency sends out notices to beneficiaries.

The actual boost in payments will be reflected in the first payments of the following year, specifically those for January 2024.

However, recipients of Supplemental Security Income (SSI), a group that receives their payments on the first day of each month, will receive their first increased monthly payments on Friday, December 29. This is because January 1, 2024, falls on a Monday and is also a holiday, so the payments are moved forward to the first available date for bank transactions.

Despite a significant cooling of inflation in the United States, the rising cost of living continues to impact families, especially those who rely on Social Security benefits. While the slowdown in price increases is generally positive, it also means that beneficiaries won't see an increase anywhere near the 3.2% COLA for 2023.

This is due to the way the automatic annual COLA is calculated. The Social Security Administration (SSA) uses inflation data from the Consumer Price Index for Urban Wage Earners and Clerical Workers (CPI-W), which is provided by the US Department of Labor. However, the SSA specifically considers data from the third quarter of the previous year (July, August, and September) when determining the COLA increase.

In the previous year, the SSA announced a historic COLA increase of 8.7%, largely influenced by the peak inflation in June 2022, which reached a four-decade high.