COLA, SSI

An Increase in Social Security Benefits in 2017

October 18, 2016 • By

Reading Time: 1 Minute

Last Updated: March 17, 2021

cola2017The annual cost-of-living adjustment (COLA) usually means an increase in the benefit amount people receive each month. By law, the monthly Social Security and Supplemental Security Income (SSI) federal benefit rate increases when there is a rise in the cost of living. The government measures changes in the cost of living through the Department of Labor’s Consumer Price Index (CPI-W).

The CPI-W rose this year. When inflation increases, your cost of living also goes up. Prices for goods and services, on average, are a little more expensive.  Since the CPI-W did rise, the law increases benefits to help offset inflation. As a result, monthly Social Security and SSI benefits for over 65 million Americans will increase 0.3 percent in 2017.

Other changes that would normally take effect based on changes in the national average wage index will begin in January 2017. For example, the maximum amount of earnings subject to the Social Security payroll tax will increase to $127,200.

Information about Medicare changes for 2017, when announced, will be available at www.Medicare.gov.  For some beneficiaries, their Social Security increase may be partially or completely offset by increases in Medicare premiums.

You can find more information about the 2017 COLA at www.socialsecurity.gov/cola.  For changes in the national average wage index, go to www.socialsecurity.gov/OACT/COLA/AWI.html.

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About the Author

Doug Walker, Deputy Commissioner, Communications

Deputy Commissioner, Office of Communications

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Comments

  1. Robert F.

    They can just keep it as far as I am concerned it is not even worth it. Probably kick me into another tax bracket.

  2. Priscilla

    Wow can they spare it .3% That mean anything especially in New Jersey where they just raised the gas tax 23 cents. The government I am sure will get a raise and it will be more than .3%.

  3. Michelle

    I’ve been reading all these comments in hopes to understand SS recipients’ perspectives. Each one of you has helped me understand more what we need so thank you & much respect for this. I help companies & people manage their 401k and other retirement accounts so that we as a nation can address some of the challenges that all of you speak about, this is why I’m here on this thread.

    My research & understanding of SS is that is has always been a “pay to support the generation ahead of us” plan. I am a Gen X’er and have always had the mindset that I do not expect SS for myself and that what I pay in is a donation to help support the generation ahead of me to help provide them a dignified life in their later years. I feel it is the least we can do to appreciate & value people like yourselves who have gained much wisdom over your lives & still have so much to offer us younger folk. Most people of my generation feel the same, that they do not expect SS to provide for them; if it happens, it will be an unexpected bonus.

    The numbers have changed over time; it used to be that people lived shorter lives and we had 1 person contributing for every 2.1 people receiving SS. Today it is 1 person contributing for every 2.8 people receiving SS. Gen X’ers, those of us in our prime earning years currently, are half the size of the Baby Boomers, those of you in early retirement currently.

    The SS COLA increases are based upon the the wage earners index, the CPI-W, when in fact the consumer price index for retirees, the CPI-E, is a more accurate reflection of what costs for retirees are and this is what SS COLA increases need to be linked to.

    Thank you again for your insights and always remember how much we younger folks still need the wisdom that you all hold, regardless of what any politician or anyone else says…we *need* you & all that you have to offer.

    As a parting note there is a very useful book that some of you may find helpful; I do not know the author and am completely unaffiliated with this book; I have come across it in my work and have found it very helpful in helping others understand SS and how to get the benefits that are available to them. It is “Get What’s Yours: The Secrets to Maxing Out Your Social Security” You may be able to find it at a local library and Amazon offers it as a very reasonable price as well. Hope this helps and blessings to you all.

    • djbn

      Thank you for your logical and cogent comments, Michelle. Blessing on you.

    • ROBERT C.

      THANK YOU for your insight into this matter. I truly hope you never get old or disabled. and thanks for the tip on the book.
      I just hope its less than $4.00.

  4. RB

    That dollar increase means one less golf ball for Obama! They have their priorities!

  5. Gary

    “Cost of Living” data rarely translates to the real cost of living for retired, older people. Most of us do not deal with the latest fashions in clothes or cars etc. If we have a lot of money we might travel. But if not and lived mostly on SS we are dealing with the rise in cost of food we can eat, healthy food, and medicines we need, and heat and cooling our comfort requires. That is our Cost of Living and this paltry amount, likely to vanish with a rise in Medicare costs, is almost insulting to your grandmothers and grandfathers who mostly cannot really work anymore even if they found a place that might hire a 70-90 year old!!

  6. Dorothy L.

    The best raise we ever got was when Jimmy Carter was president. It was 11 percent. And cost of living keeps rising. Thanks for the peanut raise.

  7. Dennis

    .3%……wow…..another slap in the face by our beloved government!! Meanwhile; watch what kind of raise they give themselves ! They have STOLEN all of our Social Security that WE paid into. That was not THEIR money to use to pay off THEIR debt. It’s time to clean house in D.C. We need a HUGE Shop-Vac to go up there and suck up all the sludge that has been vegetating on OUR tax dollars for YEARS.

  8. Lauren

    Congress will only find out what it’s really like when we put them on the clock!! Make them punch a time clock and get paid for the amount of work they do. This country was built on the backbone of the average American worker.
    Let them see what it feels like for a while year! If they don’t do any work, they don’t get any money. Let them pay for their own insurance (and their family’s) and take out the ‘proper’ taxes. NO perks, NO entitlements, NO ‘paid for’ amenities….and NO paid time off.
    They say they’ll do it for a week….NOOOO….a week is not long enough for them to get the full experience. Let them live on it for a year to find out.

  9. Darryl

    0.3% wow well last year when I asked about our cost of living raise I was told the cost of living had not gone up and I told that person when was the last time they bought anything gas, food, anything I told that person o never mind you probably have some one do it for you my bad for asking such a personal question )I was so dam mad) and for the years they have not givin me a raise this whole 4 or 5 bucks won’t even cover how much my rent went up last year alone witch was a little over $70 a month and that was in the year that cost of living had not gone up now their going to give me a 0.3% raise and that doesn’t even get me even caught up for the years they have failed to give me a cost of living raise because to them in most years the cost of living does not go up and for them their right because we are to busy paying their bills for them while us poor folk sit and get screwed over and over but what are people like us to do? it is not like we have the money to file anything in a court because that takes money and forget about driving anywhere because that cost has gone up and up and up but to their records the cost of living last year did not go up I agree whith another person on here the only reason we are getting a raise this year because he hopes it will help put his evil side kick in office heck I hope we don’t get a Clinton in office if we do you think it has been bad up to this point if that happens people that live off SSD or SSI your rights are going to get all kinds of trampled on so ya thanks for the 0.3% can you get off your butt and give it to us every year because we get paid so dam little that you think once every four years that a 0.3% raise is some kind of great reward to us please it is a slap in the face and it stinks make it right and pay us what you failed to pay us for all the years you did not give us a cost of living raise! and people wonder why I dislike the goverment so much their are parts that are ok but their are other parts that need allot of work.

  10. Brenda C.

    Well everyone that has time can spend their days on blogs like these

    • ROBERT C.

      FINISH YOU STATEMENT

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