Americans grew excited in Oct. when it was announced that the COLA increase would boost Social Security benefits by 5.9%.
Millions of Americans are impacted because they live off Social Security.
The change goes into effect in just a few weeks.
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Here are 5 important things to know before the COLA increase goes into effect
70 million Americans are going to benefit from this payment increase.
People collecting SSI, not just Social Security, are benefitting from the increase as well.
In all, 64 million Social Security beneficiaries and 8 million SSI beneficiaries will see bigger checks next year.
Those collecting Social Security benefits will see the change in their Jan. 2022 checks.
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Anyone collecting SSI will see a change Dec. 30, 2021.
Social Security beneficiaries will see an average increase of $92 in their checks.
The exact amount depends on what your checks are with your work and salary history, as well as your age when you retired.
You’ll learn how much you’re getting when the SSA mails out COLA notices.
They began going out during the month of December and will continue through the 31st.
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If you do not get one, the SSA asks that you wait until Jan. to contact them.
You may also see how much it is using your online message center through your Social Security account.
Payments are increasing in order to keep up with the cost of inflation.
The SSA determines how much it needs to increase based on the Consumer Price Index for Urban Wage Earners and Clerical Workers during the months of July, August, and Sept.
The 5.9% increase is one of the highest increases in recent years, due to how quickly inflation happened after the pandemic began.
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