Social Security Raise Could Hit 3.6% in 2027

Social Security recipients are on track for their biggest cost-of-living raise in three years, after fresh inflation data pushed 2027 forecasts as high as 3.6%.

AARP now projects a 3.6% cost-of-living adjustment, or COLA, for 2027 based on the August Consumer Price Index figures — up from the 3.5% it forecast a month earlier. The Senior Citizens League puts it at 3.5%, and the nonpartisan Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget at 3.4%.

Any of those numbers would be the largest annual bump since 2023, when benefits jumped 8.7%.

The Social Security Administration will announce the official figure on Oct. 14.

The Numbers

The Consumer Price Index for Urban Wage Earners and Clerical Workers — the CPI-W, the specific measure used to set the COLA — rose 3.5% in the 12 months through August, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported Friday, hitting an index level of 328.481. The broader CPI-U rose 0.4% for the month and 3.4% over the year.

AARP's 3.6% estimate would raise the average retired worker's monthly check by about $75, from $2,071 in January to roughly $2,146, according to CBS News. Mary Johnson, an independent Social Security and Medicare analyst who forecasts 3.5%, puts the increase at about $70 a month.

Newsweek calculates that a 3.45% adjustment — the average of July's 3.4% and August's 3.5% CPI-W readings — would lift the average retired-worker benefit of $2,085.98 by roughly $71.97 a month, or $863.60 a year.