Social Security COLA for 2013 Will Be 1.7 Percent

Social Security recently announced that beneficiaries will receive a 1.7% benefit increase in 2013.

Update: No Social Security increase expected for 2016

People collecting SSI benefits will receive their increase in December 2012; people collecting Social Security will see their increase in January 2013.

Annual increases to Social Security and SSI benefits are to help offset rising living expenses. Social Security started the annual increases, also called the Cost of Living Adjustment (COLA), back in 1975.

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The COLA for 2012 was 3.6 percent. Below is a history of the COLA from 1975 through 2013:

**Automatic Cost-Of-Living Adjustments**
July 1975 — 8.0% July 1976 — 6.4% July 1977 — 5.9% July 1978 — 6.5% July 1979 — 9.9% July 1980 — 14.3% July 1981 — 11.2% July 1982 — 7.4% January 1984 — 3.5% January 1985 — 3.5% January 1986 — 3.1% January 1987 — 1.3% January 1988 — 4.2% January 1989 — 4.0% January 1990 — 4.7% January 1991 — 5.4% January 1992 — 3.7% January 1993 — 3.0% January 1994 — 2.6%	January 1995 — 2.8% January 1996 — 2.6% January 1997 — 2.9% January 1998 — 2.1% January 1999 — 1.3% January 2000 — 2.5% January 2001 — 3.5% January 2002 — 2.6% January 2003 — 1.4% January 2004 — 2.1% January 2005 — 2.7% January 2006 — 4.1% January 2007 — 3.3% January 2008 — 2.3% January 2009 — 5.8% January 2010 — 0.0% January 2011 — 0.0% January 2012 — 3.6% January 2013 — 1.7%

Before 1975, cost of living adjustments were rare as it took special legislation to get an increase passed. In 1972 the law was changed to allow automatic increases based on the consumer price index (CPI).

The first of these automatic increases began in 1975. With the exception of 2010 and 2011, beneficiaries have received a COLA increase every year since then.

2013 COLA: Social Security Benefits to Increase 1.7%

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