Social Security to Adjust Cost of Living by 3.6% for 2027

The Social Security Administration announced Wednesday that it will provide a 3.6% cost-of-living adjustment for its Social Security and Supplemental Security Income benefits for the upcoming year, reflecting this year’s inflation of 3.7%.

The administration confirmed that monthly Social Security checks will increase by an average of $75 a month, bringing the average retired-worker benefit to $2,170 a month, starting in January 2027.

A couple in which both spouses receive Social Security benefits will receive an average of $3,355 a month, up from $3,238 this year.

Increased payments for approximately 7.3 million SSI recipients will begin on December 29, 2026. The maximum SSI payment will rise to $1,029 per month for an individual, up from $994 in 2026, and to $1,544 per month for a couple, up from $1,491. Some people receive both Social Security and SSI benefits.

“That’s the largest adjustment since 2023, and it matters for the millions of retirees who depend on Social Security for most of their monthly costs,” wrote Tim Grimsditch, managing director at Unbiased, a U.K.-based global financial information resource, in an emailed response to questions. “But it’s worth being clear about what a COLA is. It’s designed to help benefits keep pace with inflation, not to increase purchasing power. In a good year it holds the line.”

The COLA is based on the year-over-year rate of inflation from the year’s third quarter—3.7%—also published this morning by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics in the Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers.

The adjustment was significantly higher than in recent years due to inflation. Recipients had received increases of 2.8% for 2026 and 2.5% for 2025.

“There’s a lot on the line financially right now for older Americans: one in five have no retirement savings, and more people feel financially insecure this year than last. That makes Social Security’s cost-of-living adjustment critically important,” wrote AARP CEO, Myechia Minter-Jordan, in an email. “Yet special interests in Washington still want to weaken or eliminate the COLA, which would amount to cutting tens of thousands of dollars for middle-class seniors.”

The maximum amount of earnings subject to the Social Security tax will also increase to $192,300.

In addition to the COLA, the earnings limit for workers younger than full retirement age—67 for people born in 1960 and later—will increase to $25,560, up from $24,480 last year. The earnings limit for people reaching their full retirement age in 2027 will increase to $67,920, up from $65,160 in 2026.

According to estimates by the SSA, its main trust fund, the Old-Age and Survivors Insurance Trust Fund, will deplete its reserves by the third quarter of 2032. At that point, according to the SSA’s Board of Trustees 2026 report, combined asset reserves of the OASI Trust Fund and Disability Insurance Trust Fund are forecast to have enough revenue to pay 83% of benefits due at that time. The projected depletion date has moved forward by two years since 2024’s.

Combining the two funds would allow the SSA to pay full benefits until 2034, but the funds cannot be combined without a change in federal law. Several bills to address Social Security’s solvency have been introduced in Congress but none have advanced out of committee.