Anyone born between the 21st and 31st of any month will have their benefits paid on December 27. January payments for SSI and Social Security for those who have been claiming since before July 1997 will be made on December 29 as January 1 is a holiday.

The first piece of good news is that beneficiaries will see a 2.5% bump in benefits beginning in January, thanks to the cost-of-living adjustment (COLA). The average retiree collects just over $1,900 per month in benefits, which amounts to a raise of roughly $50 per month.

But when we look back at the data, it becomes clear that a 2.5% Social Security COLA isn't so terrible. In fact, it's a lot more generous than some of the COLAs beneficiaries have seen in the past. In 2024, Social Security benefits rose by 3.2%. The year prior, they increased by 8.7%. And in 2022, a 5.9% COLA came through.

Social Security beneficiaries will soon experience a welcome change when benefits climb due to a cost-of-living adjustment.

Millions of older Americans today receive a monthly benefit from Social Security. And for many of them, that benefit is their only source of income. It might therefore surprise you to learn that as of October 2024,

Social Security has been in the news a lot given the program's financial shakiness and the potential for benefit cuts. And whenever there's an election, Social Security tends to be a big issue for politicians to discuss.