COLA Chatter – 2023 Increase – History’s Highest?

Lately, there’s lots of chatter about the COLA for next year being the biggest since 1980 when it was 14.3 or 1981 when we received 11.2. Anything in the double digits would be huge for us. It would be a first for me. My VA disability started in 1991 and my SSDI didn’t start till 1998 I think.

Opinions on what it will be are varied:

Yahoo/Finance The Consumer Price Index report for Wednesday showed that inflation in June surged by 9.1%. This means that the COLA (cost-of-living adjustment) for 2023 will be approximately 10.5%, according to the Senior Citizens League. This is great news for seniors who are struggling to keep up with the rising costs of living.

Fool.com According to Mary Johnson, a Social Security policy analyst at The Senior Citizens League (TSCL), a nonpartisan senior advocacy group, the program’s COLA could be as high as 11.4% in 2023 if inflation continues to surge in the third quarter.

Here is a link to Google Search for COLA 2023 so you can keep track of the news on the 2023 COLA as we get closer to it’s announcement in October.

For historical perspective here are the COLA increases since 1975.

• 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% ⁽¹⁾
• 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%
• January 2014 — 1.5%
• January 2015 — 1.7%
• January 2016 — 0.0%
• January 2017 — 0.3%
• January 2018 — 2.0%
• January 2019 — 2.8%
• January 2020 — 1.6%
• January 2021 — 1.3%
• January 2022 — 5.9%

⁽¹⁾ The COLA for December 1999 was originally determined as 2.4 percent based on CPIs published by the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Pursuant to Public Law 106-554, however, this COLA is effectively now 2.5 percent.