Social Security's COLA system is meant to protect 66 million pensioners from rising prices (inflation).
If recipients' costs grow by a specific percentage, they'd prefer to see their monthly benefits rise by the same amount.
Things are more predictable now, thankfully. CPI-W has been Social Security's inflationary determinant for 47 years.
The CPI-W includes more than a half-dozen primary spending categories and numerous subcategories, each with its own weighting.
After a decade of modest cost-of-living adjustments (save for 2022), seniors will witness a historic increase in Social Security benefits in 2023.
With the U.S. inflation rate reaching a four-decade high in June, rising housing, medical, food, and energy costs will increase programme payouts next year.
According to the Social Security Administration's official statement, the COLA for 2023 will be 8.7%.
Here's how monthly Social Security checks will look once the 2023 COLA kicks in in January:
a)Average retired worker: $1,681/month
b)Average worker with disabilities: $1,364/month
c)Average aged couple, both receiving benefits: $2,734/month
c)Average widowed mother and two children: $3,238/month
d)Average aged widow(er) with no children: $1,567/month