Social Security serves as a lifeline of support for tens of millions of individuals across the country. There are currently well over 70 million beneficiaries in the program, many of whom rely primarily on their monthly benefit check to cover their living expenses. When inflation factors into the cost of living, making ends make can become increasingly difficult for people relying on a fixed income such as Social Security. In order to help the average benefit check retain its buying power in the face of rising costs, the Social Security Administration (SSA) implements a Cost of Living Adjustment (COLA) annually.
The COLA is determined by measuring the CPI-W of the third quarter of the current year against the same data for the same period of the previous year. If inflation has increased from one year to the next, all benefits will be increase proportionately starting in the new year. Since the COLA calculation uses CPI data for July, August, and September, the SSA is able to determine and announce the next COLA by October of each year. This year, the COLA announcement had to be pushed back from October 15th to October 24th as a result of delays with the release of the September CPI due to the federal government shutdown.
The September data had already been collected prior to the shutdown and as such, the Bureau of Labor Statistics made a special concession and released the CPI on October 24th, thereby allowing the SSA to determine and announce the 2026 COLA. Starting with the January 2026 round of checks, all benefits will be increased by 2.8%. Additionally, a specific cohort of beneficiaries will technically be receiving their 2026 COLA increase in 2025. Here is what you need to know.
When will beneficiaries receive their COLA increase?
The SSA makes its benefit payment schedule for the full calendar year available to beneficiaries well in advance. This allows beneficiaries sufficient time to plan their monthly budgets around their benefit payment dates. For the regular Social Security benefit, the SSA follows a very rigid payment structure where checks are rolled out on the second, third, and fourth Wednesday of each month.
Each respective beneficiary will only receive one benefit check per month, and the specific Wednesday on which they will receive payment is determined in relation to their date of birth. As noted above, there are tens of millions of beneficiaries in the Social Security program and rather than trying to issue over 70 million checks on one singular day, the agency has spread out its payment days across the month. This likely leaves less room for any sort of payment error.
As such, the benefit checks issued on the following dates will be the first round of benefits to include the 2.8% COLA increase:
- December 31st, 2025 — SSI benefit for January 2026
- January 2nd, 2026 — Social Security for those who had received Social Security before May 1997, or for those who also receive the SSI
- January 14th, 2026 — Social Security for recipients with birth dates from the 1st to the 10th of their respective birth months
- January 21st, 2026 — Social Security for recipients with birth dates from the 11th to the 20th of their respective birth months
- January 28th, 2026 — Social Security for recipients with birth dates from the 21st to the 31st of their respective birth months
Why is the January SSI being issued in December?
SSI benefits are generally issued on the first of their month, however, this schedule tends to fluctuate somewhat. When the first falls on a weekend or a holiday (i.e. a non-working day), the SSA will push up the payment to the last working day of the previous month so as to prevent the beneficiary from facing any delays with payment.
“We do this to avoid putting you at a financial disadvantage and make sure that you don’t have to wait beyond the first of the month to get your payment. It does not mean that you are receiving a duplicate payment in the previous month, so you do not need to contact us to report the second payment,” the SSA previously explained.
Since January 1st is considered a holiday, the SSI for January, which includes the 2.8% COLA increase, will be issued to recipients on December 31st, 2025. This means that SSI recipients will technically be receiving their 2026 COLA bump in 2025.