Although worries that beneficiaries have decreased their buying power, Social Security users shouldn’t anticipate the cost-of-living adjustment (COLA) for 2024 to be as big as the one for 2023.
According to a press release issued this week from Mary Johnson, the Senior Citizens League’s Social Security and Medicare policy expert, the COLA in 2024 “might be about 3.1%.”
The Senior Citizen’s League (TSCL), a nonpartisan senior advocacy organization, has long relied on information from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, particularly its Consumer Price Indexes, to estimate approaching COLA increases. This information is subsequently utilized by the Social Security Administration to calculate its yearly COLA boosts.
The rise in 2023, at 8.7%, was the highest COLA boost in over 4 decades. This was mainly due to supply-chain problems that contributed to the pandemic’s high inflation. However, TSCL experts are concerned that the lower 2024 COLA rise might have negative consequences on recipients as a result of decreasing inflation or at least the impression of decreasing inflation.