The COLA 2024 announcement is now official for all Social Security beneficiaries in the United States. This means that we now know the total percentage that each of the retirement and disability benefits will increase in the coming year.
So thanks to this, retirees will have greater purchasing power. This is a way for Social Security beneficiaries to cope directly with the general price increases, as well as the recent high inflation.
With the 3.2% increase retirees’ checks will have an increase not as steep as in 2023 but enough to keep them going. And it is very important to know the details of this increase, so it is also important to know how we will be able to count on it.
Truth be told, we don’t have to do much to get the 2024 COLA increase in Social Security checks. It is hardly necessary to have a benefit activated, but we do need to be aware of when we will get the first of these checks with the added increase. Each retiree will get the payment on a different day and this means we need to know the schedule.
STEPS TO FOLLOW IN ORDER TO OBTAIN THE SOCIAL SECURITY INCREASE
The COLA is actually an automated process. This means that beneficiaries who have a Social Security benefit will see the COLA increase added to their monthly check automatically and without having to do anything. However, there are several things to keep in mind.
First of all, we need to know when we will get the first of the COLA payments. Even though we already know that the increase figure is 3.2% we will not be able to know what the exact amount of these checks will be until we get the first of them.
And in this case we find that the first of the checks we get will depend on several factors. This also includes Supplemental Security Income recipients, as these recipients will also have a COLA increase.
These are the first payments under the 2024 COLA:
- Supplemental Security Income. The first of the payments with the added COLA will be from SSI. And many beneficiaries will get this payment in 2023. The Administration will send this payment in advance to beneficiaries on the 29th day of December. If we have Direct Deposit activated, the payment will arrive on the same day.
- Pre-1997 retirees. This group of retirees will receive their first SSA payment with the COLA added on January 3.
- Post-1997 retirees. This other group will have their payment split on 3 different days in January. The exact day of the payment will depend on the date of each person’s birthday. The days will be the 10th, 17th and 24th of January depending on the birthday.
The calculation of this final check will depend on the actual check. So just add 3.2% to your total amount to get a more or less accurate figure of what you will get in the coming year 2024 from Social Security benefits.
