Social Security Benefits Increase in 2020
Reading Time: 1 MinuteLast Updated: October 10, 2019
When we announce the annual cost-of-living adjustment (COLA), there’s usually an increase in the Social Security and Supplemental Security Income (SSI) benefit amount. Federal benefit rates increase when the cost of living rises, as measured by the Department of Labor’s Consumer Price Index (CPI-W).
The CPI-W rises when inflation increases, it makes your cost of living go up. This change means prices for goods and services, on average, are a little more expensive, so the COLA helps to offset these costs.
As a result, nearly 69 million Americans will see a 1.6 percent increase in their Social Security and SSI benefits in 2020.
January 2020 marks other changes that will happen based on the increase in the national average wage index. For example, the maximum amount of earnings subject to Social Security payroll tax. The retirement earnings test exempt amount, will also change in 2020.
Want to know your new benefit amount as soon as possible? In December 2019, we will post Social Security COLA notices online for retirement, survivors, and disability beneficiaries who have a my Social Security account. You will be able to view and save these COLA notices securely via the Message Center inside my Social Security. You can also opt out of receiving notices by mail that are available online.
Be the first to know! Sign up for or log in to your personal my Social Security account today. Choose email or text under “Message Center Preferences” to receive courtesy notifications. This way you won’t miss your online COLA notice!
You can find more information about the 2020 COLA here.
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About the Author
Darlynda Bogle, Assistant Deputy Commissioner
Darlynda Bogle, Assistant Deputy Commissioner
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Cary F.
Thank you.
Vince T.
Cost of Living here in Western MO is Sky-Rocketing WAY more than any dang 1.6% ! ! ! ! ! ! Poor People ( like Us ) will just get POORER !!!!!! Just keep getting closer and closer and closer to going on SNAP—MedicAid—Section 8—Welfare !!!!
TRUMP’s Great America —— My Foot !! !! !! !! !! !!
glenda w.
Thanks for all the hard work that you guys do and for being cordial when someone calls.
Ida G.
When I first filed to received SS benefits (Widow’s Pension) I was told my the rep that if I waited until the age of 66, I would be able to apply for my ex-husband’s benefits. We were divorced at the time of his death, but were married (while he served in the Coast Guard) for more than 24 years. Recently in the month of September, I returned to the SS location in Houston and was told that I was already receiving those benefits and the only other option was to draw my own SS benefits. In other words the initial information given to me was incorrect. I never officially retired and was expecting to file and receive an increase in benefits. It is very perplexing to find out that I have to continue living and struggling to afford a place to live in light of the ever-increasing cost of living. Is it possible to have my concerns re-addressed for accuracy? I will turn 66 on January 7, 2020. Thanks in advance for your attention to this matter. Sincerely, Ida Goffney
Elroy L.
U got 2B kidding – 1.6? Ha-Ha -U spend 2million dollars everytime Trump flies down to his golf course in Florida – Hopefully only another year of his ripping the public…
Doris C.
This raise is so sorry they will raise medicare and take it again. Congress ought to be kicked to the curb dont work and get raise. Shame on them we get a puny 1.6 . So sick giving money to people that dont deserve it like illegals. Let Congress live on it like we have too. 1.6 is bunch of bull
Hospitals &.
Anthony J. Sanders for Public Trustee http://www.title24uscode.org/2020message.pdf
I regret to inform the Commissioner that a 1.6% COLA is insufficient and this jeopardizes his 6 year term.
I had a dream last night that I dined with the Actuary, http://www.title24uscode.org/usdabudget2020.pdf , but it was not I having difficulty speaking, not to incriminate my loved ones, Pope Francis suggests that many people behave as though they are deaf (sordo). It was that the Actuary was attempting to evade and/or defeat, the repeal of the maximum taxable limit under Sec. 230 of the Social Security Act under 42USC430, to create in the Treasury a Supplemental Security Income Trust Fund. The Actuary furthermore, has a history of bear attacking as email retaliation, that has been proven in court to have been the result of a massive subsidy for unlawful habitat destroying slash piles, the next day. After I chucked a square mile of these piles, at the request of papa bear, that sprang up overnight near my camp within a few months of the Actuary’s response to my email, mama bear and cub moved in. The State Supreme Court has written to apologize for not having an indigent defender program to protect public land for camping, except where National Scenic Rivers needs to be amended to prevent access to ‘urban drinking watersheds’ under 36CFR261.58(e, z).
In sooth, this is why we have to suffer a miserable 1.6% COLA to compete with 2.7% annual inflation. To rightly interpret under Sec. 215(i) of the Social Security Act under 42USC415(i) it is necessary to provide low income beneficiaries with a 3% COLA so that they will theoretically at some time in the future not be poor. Otherwise, the program will technically fail its raison d’etre, to raise people out of poverty, on the shoestring budget we operate on a federal/ macroeconomic level. While the term low income might at some time be open to the poverty line, for now it includes all social security beneficiaries. OASDI payroll revenues are growing normally whereas social security is the gold standard of work visas. OASDI is growing much faster than individual income tax revenues that have been crimped by both 2% TCJA cut and >3% loss of migrant workers. The theory is that OASI beneficiaries grow 2.4% annually + 1.6% COLA (2020) + hypothetical 0.6% maximum benefit cost = 4.6% OASI spending growth for verification against 2019 Annual Report resolution of OASI overestimate dispute. Just like the attached USDA Budget Office deal, the ultimatum is that the burden of proof immediately lies upon you to respond to my solicitation to serve as Public Trustee for a raise form $711 to $2,000 a month, and then I will in a short amount of time, meticulous cross-examine, the 2020 message above with the 2019 Annual Report.
The other propaganda beneficiaries are in conflict with is a renewed spate of “Medicare for All’. Medicare’s ‘you may be b(k)illed’ letters are the whole reason for overestimated, but quite bankrupting, medical hyperinflation, since the 1970s. The proper slogan for federal health insurance sale is “Medicaid Prices for All”.
SSA needs to respond to my application for one of two vacant Public Trustee positions in the Annual Report to stay at the High Court. Your non-response is forcing the public land to turn me into some sort of homeless journeyman who must walk across the country, visiting all the local SSA offices, and Hospitals & Asylums (HA) properties on the way to Washington DC, before even finishing the West Coast, But so far I have not gone to any of those one hit wonder, local offices, who refuse to admit my email and website address and instead want to invade my home in contravention to Art. 28 of the 4th Geneva Convention Relative to the Protection of Civilians in Times of War (1949).
Michael B.
My wife passed away last month. Who do I have to get in touch with to stop her SS checks?
A.C.
Hi, Michael. We are sorry to hear about your loss. Typically, the funeral director notifies us of an individual’s passing by contacting the local Social Security office. To verify this information was reported, and to see if you are eligible for survivor’s benefits, call our toll-free number at 1-800-772-1213. Representatives are available Monday through Friday, between 7:00 a.m. and 7:00 p.m. You can also contact your local Social Security office directly. Thanks.
Mark C.
Being new to SS and Medicare I have a few questions you good folks might help with. After reading past posts here, why would people pay $275-$300 a mo. additional with a health insurer for Plan F coverage, when “advantage plans” can be had for no additional cost other than what Medicare deducts normally?
Lastly, does anyone know of a way to find out how much the gov’t pays those insurers in addition to the monthly costs deducted for Medicare from our checks?
Haviette
The middle class is enjoying a booming economy and higher wages, while Social Security beneficiaries are left behind to tighten their belts more each year, as the cost of rent and groceries continues to climb. Around the country, food donations are way down, as more seniors and disabled stand in line, to receive mostly bread items and yogurt from food pantries. Because many Americans are doing well, they should still remember those who live on limited resources, and donate quality food items to nearby food pantries.