Social Security's Newest 2026 Cost-of-Living Adjustment (COLA) Forecast Points to Promise and Peril for Retirees

For most retirees, Social Security provides an indispensable source of income. Even though the average retired-worker benefit check was a modest $1,980.86 in February, this payout has been necessary to help beneficiaries make ends meet.

Since 2002, pollster Gallup has been conducting annual surveys to gauge how reliant retirees are on the income they receive from America's leading social program. Spanning more than two decades, 80% to 90% of respondents have noted that their Social Security check accounts for a "major" or "minor" income source. In other words, it's a financial foundation they'd struggle to make do without.

With an overwhelming majority of the program's 52 million-plus retired workers relying on their payout to cover their expenses, in some capacity, it should come as little surprise that the annual cost-of-living adjustment (COLA) reveal in October is the year's most anticipated announcement.

Continue reading