A new estimate suggests that Social Security and Supplemental Security Income benefits will increase in the year ahead. (Disability Scoop)
People with disabilities who receive Social Security and Supplemental Security Income are likely to see a bump in their monthly checks soon.
Benefits are expected to rise 3.5% for 2027, according to a new estimate from the Senior Citizen’s League, a nonpartisan group that advocates for seniors.
The increase is due to an automatic cost-of-living adjustment, or COLA, that occurs each year to account for inflation. The COLA is based on third quarter results from the government’s Consumer Price Index for Urban Wage Earners and Clerical Workers.
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The Social Security Administration will announce the COLA for 2027 next month. The estimate issued late last week from the Senior Citizen’s League is based on government data collected through August.
“The biggest thing we’re watching with the COLA announcement coming are short-term shocks to the economy that push inflation way up or down in the next 30 days. Of the three CPI-W figures used to calculate the COLA, two are already in,” said Shannon Benton, executive director of the Senior Citizen’s League.
In recent years, the COLA has been as low as zero in 2015 and as high as 8.7% in 2022. This year’s COLA was 2.8%.
However, Benton’s group has said that the COLA as it is currently structured is insufficient, with a report earlier this year finding that benefits are worth just 86.3 cents on the dollar compared to 2016.
Over 7.3 million people, including many with disabilities, receive SSI each month. The maximum federal SSI benefit this year is $994 per month for individuals and $1,491 for couples, according to the Social Security Administration, though payments can be higher since some states add in extra.
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