Will All Social Security Retirees Get a Benefits Increase in 2026?

If you are retired and collecting Social Security, you likely rely on the income you receive to help you make ends meet. Unfortunately, many retirees have found that this income isn't going as far as it used to in the past.

In fact, research from the Nationwide Retirement Institute revealed that more than half of all current benefits recipients had to cut back on discretionary spending because their cost of living outpaced the growth in their benefits.

With retirement checks not going as far as they should, some retirees may be wondering if a benefits increase is coming in 2026 and, if so, if all seniors will get the added funds. Here's what you need to know.

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Will all retirees get a Social Security raise next year?

For seniors who are hoping for a raise in 2026, there's both good news and bad news. A Social Security COLA is almost assuredly coming in 2026, and all retirees who are collecting Social Security will be eligible for it. The cost-of-living adjustment, or COLA, is also going to apply to people who are receiving other types of Social Security benefits beyond retirement benefits, including spousal benefits and survivor benefits.

The bad news is, while the COLA is usually referred to as a "raise" because it results in checks getting larger, the reality is that it does not provide more buying power as a traditional raise would. Instead, its purpose is to help protect retirees against losing buying power due to inflation. This means that, at best, the benefits increase is likely to keep seniors whole and allow them to continue affording their current lifestyle.

Unfortunately, since the COLA is calculated using a formula that measures inflation experienced by urban wage earners and clerical workers, the COLA often ends up coming in short. The formula underestimates the share of income that seniors spend on things like healthcare and housing, which are areas where inflation tends to be higher than average, and so retirees often lose buying power despite the fact that, on paper, their benefits get bigger and despite the fact this is the very thing COLAs are designed to prevent.

This is likely to happen in 2026 when benefits increase, especially as Medicare premiums are expected to see a substantial $21.50 per month increase next year. These premiums are typically withdrawn directly from Social Security benefits. Since premiums are climbing so much higher, the added Medicare costs could end up substantially reducing the size of the Social Security benefits bump, eating up almost half of the amount of the COLA.

So, the bottom line is, all retirees will get a Social Security cost-of-living adjustment next year regardless of the specifics of how they are collecting their benefits now, but it won't result in a lot of extra money in their checks, and it may not even be enough to help them avoid losing ground.

Many retirees may end up having to pull more from their retirement plans if they don't want to make any cuts to their current living standard.

Since all retirees are in line for a COLA next year, you may also be wondering exactly when you'll find out how big that benefit increase will be. That big announcement is coming up soon. While seniors usually find out how big the COLA is in mid-October, the government shutdown has delayed the announcement until Oct. 24.

The announcement will be made before the end of the month, though, and seniors will find out exactly how much extra they'll be getting in their checks. This will help retirees make their plans for the upcoming year, including setting their budgets for 2026 and determining about how much supplementary income their 401(k) and other retirement investment accounts will need to provide.

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