All Social Security beneficiaries are getting a 2.5% cost-of-living adjustment (COLA) next year -- or at least they are on paper. This will increase monthly benefit amounts for all recipients, including those claiming spousal Social Security.

Social Security benefits and SSI payments will increase in 2025, helping tens of millions of people keep up with expenses even as inflation has started to cool.'

One of the most important parts of Social Security is the annual cost-of-living adjustment, or COLA. The COLA is designed to help your monthly checks keep up with rising prices for everything from groceries, to medical bills, to the cost of housing. The Social Security Administration announces the next year's COLA in October each year.

Here's when 2025's Social Security Cost of Living Adjustment increases will go into effect. The increase is the agency's lowest in years.

Over the last decade, the cost-of-living adjustment (COLA) increase has averaged about 2.6%. The COLA was 3.2% in 2024. Another significant change in January will be an increase in taxable wages. The maximum amount of earnings subject to the Social Security tax (taxable maximum) will increase to $176,100, up from $168,600.

Most readers probably know Social Security payments receive annual cost-of-living adjustments (COLA) designed to protect the buying power of benefits from inflation. For instance, beneficiaries will get a 2.5% COLA in 2025, but there are other important changes coming to Social Security next year.

Among the changes Social Security recipients will see in 2025 is a higher full retirement age. The number marks the age at which workers become eligible to claim 100 percent of their retirement benefit based on lifetime earnings.

For the millions of older Americans who get most of their monthly income from Social Security, annual COLAs, or cost-of-living adjustments, are a big deal. COLAs are designed to boost benefits in line with inflation so that seniors don't lose out on buying power from one year to the next.