Each year we announce the annual cost-of-living adjustment (COLA). Usually there is an increase in the Social Security and Supplemental Security Income (SSI) benefit amount people receive each month, starting the following January. By law, federal benefits increase when the cost of living rises, as measured by the Department of Labor’s Consumer Price Index for Urban Wage Earners and Clerical Workers (CPI-W). Continue reading
We are constantly expanding our online services to give you freedom and control when doing business with us. Our new online cost-of-living adjustment (COLA) notices are another example of our commitment in this area.
Later this year, we will post the Social Security COLA notices online for retirement, survivors, and disability beneficiaries with a my Social Security account. The announcement of the COLA amount will occur in October, but final benefit amounts won’t be calculated and available until December, when we mail COLA notices that contain the benefit amount for the next calendar year. Continue reading
Is Social Security a topic in your conversations these days? Are you familiar with the lingo used to describe Social Security benefits, or does it sound like a new vocabulary to you?
Social Security employees strive to explain benefits using easy-to-understand, plain language. But if a technical term or acronym (an abbreviation of the first letters of words in a phrase) that you don’t know slips into the conversation or appears in written material, you can easily find the meaning in our online glossary at www.socialsecurity.gov/agency/glossary. Continue reading
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 people receive each month. Federal benefit rates increase when the cost of living rises, as measured by the Department of Labor’s Consumer Price Index (CPI-W). Continue reading
Social Security is constantly evolving to make your life easier. If you are currently receiving benefits from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), and are reapplying for benefits, or are assisting someone with their application, a trip to the Social Security office is probably not necessary even if verification of Social Security benefits is needed. Continue reading
2015 was a special year for Social Security – we launched our very first blog, “Social Security Matters.” This blog has helped us cover the issues and concerns that are most important to our beneficiaries and their families. Thank you for reading our blog and joining the conversation about Social Security. We look forward to having more conversations with you in the upcoming year.
While we were partial to storytelling about the 80th Anniversary of the Social Security Act, we invite you to check out our top ten Social Security Blog Posts for 2015:
The Medicare open enrollment period ran from October 15 through December 7. This was the time to make changes to your current Medicare coverage for 2016. To get a jump-start on open enrollment season, we offered five helpful tips to make sure you were prepared to Continue reading
Social Security’s annual cost-of-living adjustment (COLA) is an increase in the benefit amount people receive each month. By law, the monthly Social Security and 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).
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