Retirees and other beneficiaries of Social Security benefits and Supplemental Security Income (SSI) payments will see their monthly checks increase by 2.5% in 2025. That’s about $50 more per month on average, starting in January.
The Social Security Administration (SSA) announced the annual cost-of-living adjustment Thursday after September’s inflation numbers were released. This follows a 3.2% bump this year and a massive 8.7% jump in 2022.
While retirees may miss the large jump they saw in 2022, the economy is in a much different place now and inflation has cooled significantly. The 2.5% increase is in line with the past decade’s average of 2.6%, according to SSA. Still, it means the smallest bump in payments for tens of millions of recipients since 2020.
Around 68 million people receive Social Security benefits while nearly 7.5 million Americans—primarily disabled children and adults, surviving spouses of insured workers, and low-income individuals—receive a separate type of assistance known as Supplemental Security Income (SSI).
SSA says the average check for retired Americans will increase from $1,927 this year to $1,976 in 2025. Disabled workers will see their monthly payments rise, on average, from $1,542 to $1,580. Social Security recipients will see the increase starting in January 2025, while SSI recipients will see it in their payments on Dec. 30 of this year.
The adjustment is based on inflation numbers from July, August, and September of the previous year. Thursday’s consumer price index showed prices rose 2.4% in the 12 months through September—that inflation moderation isn’t as much as expected, but it has fallen significantly from a peak of 9.1% in 2022.