Congressional stalemate

Among all these structural issues with Social Security, there is also a huge political one. As congressional leaders wanted to talk about the need to “fix” Social Security, nothing changed.

You might have seen on television all kinds of proposals, from increasing the SS retirement age to permanently cutting all the benefits or increasing payroll tax. However, no major adjustments to Social Security have been decided.

The historical Social Security “raise” is nothing but a two-sided coin

This year, Social Security’s COLA is expected to reach an all-time high. The CPI-W data from July and August have the cost-of-living adjustment that’s rapidly pacing at 8.8%.

Even so, Social Security policy analyst Mary Johnson from The Senior Citizens League (TSCL) estimated that the minute the September data gets released, the final COAL will go down by 8.7% for this year.

To be more specific, this will mark the largest year-over-year percentage increase in 41 years, but also the biggest nominal-dollar boost to Social Security checks in the entire history.

If you do the math using Johnson’s COLA estimate of 8.7%, it might result that the average retired worker should expect a $146 monthly “raise”. In the meantime, the average disabled worker and survivor should expect respective increases of $119 per month and $116 per month.

Even so, Social Security’s 2023 COLA is definitely not all peaches and cream. Even if Social Security checks are set to explode, retirees will probably end up hating some of the aspects of next year’s historic “raise”.

If you’re curious to know more about Social Security, here’s what you need to read: 15 Tips to Protect Your Social Security Number From Scams