The Social Security 2026 COLA Forecast Just Increased. But There's Bad News for Retirees.

Millions of retired workers depend on Social Security benefits to make ends meet, and they count on annual cost-of-living adjustments (COLAs) to keep their payments aligned with inflation. Benefits lose purchasing power if those COLAs are too small, in which case Social Security recipients would effectively get less money.The Senior Citizens League, a nonprofit and nonpartisan senior advocacy group, recently raised its 2026 COLA forecast to 2.3%. That upward revision from the previous estimate of 2.2% was somewhat surprising because the March inflation reading was the lowest since September.That's good news at first glance. But trends in the underlying inflation data point to a problem for retirees: Social Security benefits will likely lose purchasing power next year. Here's why.Continue reading

Apr 22, 2025 - 08:53

The Social Security 2026 COLA Forecast Just Increased. But There's Bad News for Retirees.

Millions of retired workers depend on Social Security benefits to make ends meet, and they count on annual cost-of-living adjustments (COLAs) to keep their payments aligned with inflation. Benefits lose purchasing power if those COLAs are too small, in which case Social Security recipients would effectively get less money.

The Senior Citizens League, a nonprofit and nonpartisan senior advocacy group, recently raised its 2026 COLA forecast to 2.3%. That upward revision from the previous estimate of 2.2% was somewhat surprising because the March inflation reading was the lowest since September.

That's good news at first glance. But trends in the underlying inflation data point to a problem for retirees: Social Security benefits will likely lose purchasing power next year. Here's why.