{"id":70757,"date":"2025-10-10T21:39:07","date_gmt":"2025-10-10T21:39:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/70757\/"},"modified":"2025-10-10T21:39:07","modified_gmt":"2025-10-10T21:39:07","slug":"social-security-cola-2026-retirees-in-10-states-will-get-the-biggest-raises-next-year","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/70757\/","title":{"rendered":"Social Security COLA 2026: Retirees in 10 states will get the biggest raises next year"},"content":{"rendered":"

Faced with data delays due to the government shutdown, the Trump administration is planning to call back Bureau of Labor Statistics staff to compile a key economic report. That report \u2013 known as the Consumer Price Ind<\/a>ex \u2013 is needed to determine the 2026 Cost of Living Adjustment, or COLA, for Social Security beneficiaries.<\/p>\n

READ MORE: Social Security makes major change that could benefit tens of millions<\/a><\/p>\n

The COLA was set to be announced Oct. 15 but it\u2019s unclear if that deadline remains. A Trump official told CNN<\/a> the data would be released before Nov. 1, the deadline to publish the annual increase for Social Security.<\/p>\n

COLA is determined by the percentage increase in the CPI for Urban Wage Earners and Clerical Workers for the third quarter of the year (July, August and September). That figure is compiled and then compared to the CPI-W for the same period the previous year. The year-over-year difference is the new COLA payable in the coming year.<\/p>\n

The latest projections put the 2026 COLA at 2.%which would translate to an additional $54 per month for the average retiree. That amount can vary, however, based on existing benefit amounts and lifetime earnings and average Social Security benefits vary state by state.<\/p>\n

As financial website The Motley Fool reported,<\/a> states with higher median incomes generally receive higher median Social Security benefits. Because COLAs are based on a percentage of a person\u2019s benefits, retirees in those states will also receive the largest adjustment.<\/p>\n

Based on the website\u2019s analysis, retirees in these states will receive the largest raises in 2026. Figures show the average monthly retiree benefit after projected COLA:<\/p>\n

New Jersey: $2,172Connecticut: $2,159Delaware: $2,139New Hampshire: $2,121Maryland: $2,084Michigan: $2,067Washington: $2,061Minnesota: $2,053Massachusetts: $2,021Indiana: $2,016<\/p>\n

Earlier this year, the average Social Security payment for retired workers <\/a>reached $2,000 for the first time, hitting $2,002.39, an increase of 4.55% from the previous year.<\/p>\n

If you purchase a product or register for an account through a link on our site, we may receive compensation. By using this site, you consent to our User Agreement<\/a> and agree that your clicks, interactions, and personal information may be collected, recorded, and\/or stored by us and social media and other third-party partners in accordance with our Privacy Policy.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Faced with data delays due to the government shutdown, the Trump administration is planning to call back Bureau…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":70758,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[138,246,111,139,69,244,245],"class_list":["post-70757","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-personal-finance","tag-business","tag-finance","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-personal-finance","tag-personalfinance"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70757","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=70757"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70757\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/70758"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=70757"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=70757"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=70757"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}