People receiving Social Security benefits can expect an inflation adjustment to their checks, the largest adjustment in four decades.
The Social Security Administration released August’s numbers on Tuesday, showing that the predicted cost-of-living adjustment, or COLA, for 2023 is 8.7%. Inflation was recorded at 8.3% in August, which is down from July’s 8.5%.
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Mary Johnson, the Senior Citizens League’s Social Security and Medicare analyst, said in a press release on Wednesday that this predicted inflation rate is almost a full percentage point lower than her estimate of 9.6% from last month. In July, she estimated the 2023 cost-of-living rate could be as high as 10.5%.
If the inflation rate hits 8.7%, it will be the highest COLA “ever received by most Social Security beneficiaries alive today,” Johnson said.
She said in the release that the public needs to remember that the administration’s pause of 18.3 cents per gallon federal tax ends in September — the same third quarter period used to calculate next year’s COLA.
The Bureau of Labor Statistics attributed the 8.3% inflation rate to “increases in the shelter, food, and medical care indexes.”
Johnson added that the COLA may not reflect pockets of high inflation affecting retired and disabled Social Security recipients. In a survey conducted by the Senior Citizens League, 57.62% of Social Security beneficiaries do not have any liquid assets available for retirement savings and income.
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“That puts tens of millions of retirees at risk of continuing to fall behind or, as our reader described, ‘financial drowning,'” Johnson said.
The Bureau of Labor Statistics is expected to release the final numbers and projected inflation rate for 2023 on Oct. 13.
