WASHINGTON — For the second straight year, millions of Social Security recipients, disabled veterans and federal retirees can expect historically small increases in their benefits come January.
Preliminary figures suggest a benefit increase of about 1.5 percent, which would be among the smallest since automatic increases were adopted in 1975, according to an Associated Press analysis.
Next year’s raise will be small because consumer prices haven’t gone up much in the past year.
The exact size of the cost-of-living adjustment, or COLA, won’t be known until the Labor Department releases the inflation report for September. The report is indefinitely delayed because of the partial government shutdown. The COLA is usually announced in October to give Social Security and other benefit programs time to adjust January payments. The Associated Press
