The Social Security Administration on Friday announced a 2% increase in benefits for 2018, its largest cost-of-living adjustment (COLA) since 2012.
More than 69 million Americans will receive the bump in benefits, including more than 61 million Social Security recipients and more than 8 million recipients of Supplemental Security Income benefits. (Some people are beneficiaries of both programs.) They will receive an average $25 more per month.
Although the 2018 COLA is the largest in several years, it is less than the 2.2% that the Social Security Board of Trustees had projected in July. It follows a 0.3% increase in 2017 and no increase in 2016.
In addition to the larger COLA, the Social Security Administration raised the ceiling on earnings subject to the Social Security payroll tax to $128,700 from $127,200.
