Retirees Get a Raise in Their Social Security Benefits

A Social Security card awash in piles of cash.

(Image credit: Getty Images)

Retirees will finally get a raise in their Social Security check. The 2025 cost-of-living adjustment (COLA) applies to your January 2025 payment, which will arrive, for most retirees according, to your date of birth.

If you want to know when your check will arrive throughout February, use our Social Security Payment Schedule for February to stay up-to-date. If you want to know when your check will arrive throughout 2025, use our Social Security Payment Schedule for 2025 to stay on top of monthly payment dates.

How much is the increase for 2025?

The Social Security annual cost-of-living adjustment (COLA) for 2025 is 2.5% for 2025. This is the smallest increase since 2020, as expected, and follows an increase of 3.2% in 2024.

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According to the Social Security Administration (SSA), the 2.5% increase will translate to an additional $49 for the average retiree, increasing the average monthly check from $1,927 to $1,976. Married couples will see an average increase of $75, raising their monthly benefit to $3,089 up from $3,014.

The 2025 COLA in context Although the 2.5% COLA is lower than the 3.2% in 2024, it isn't far from the historical average. The COLA has averaged about 2.6% over the past 20 years. It went as low as 0.0% in 2010 and 2011 after the housing crisis and as high as 8.7% in 2023 when inflation spiked after COVID disruptions.

Bigger checks have started to arrive

The first group to receive their Social Security checks are those with birth dates from the 1st to the 10th. The second group, born on the 11th through the 20th, will get their increased checks the third Wednesday of the month, and the last group, those born from the 21st through the 31st get their check on the fourth Wednesday of the month.

Swipe to scroll horizontally

January 2025 Social Security benefits payment schedule
Birth date on	Date of Payment	Row 0 - Cell 2
1st – 10th	Wednesday, January 8	Row 1 - Cell 2
11th – 20th	Wednesday, January 15	Row 2 - Cell 2
21st – 31st	Wednesday, January 22	Row 3 - Cell 2

When will the increases from the SSFA kick in?

The Social Security Fairness Act repealed the WEP and GPO, and are effective for all benefits after December 2023 and for back benefits if you claimed Social Security in 2024. If you are eligible, you will receive an increase in your 2025 monthly benefits when the SSA finishes adjusting the benefits of the 3.2 million people projected to be eligible for retroactive payment for 2024 and an increase for 2025 and thereafter.

The Social Security Administration anticipates it could take up to a year, if not more, to adjust all eligible public sector retirees' benefits and pay all retroactive benefits. So it could be late 2025 or even 2026 before you'll see any of that extra money. Once the change takes effect for you, your monthly checks will increase and you'll likely get a one-time payment for any applicable retroactive benefits. As long as the SSA has your current address and correct direct deposit information, you don't need to do a thing to get your SSFA increase and back payment. You can check this SSFA checklist periodically to see if the SSA has released any new information.

Recent updates

Correction: in a previous version, we incorrectly stated that the 2.5% COLA would be reflected starting in February. However, the increase began with benefits that Social Security beneficiaries received in January 2025. Increased SSI payments began with the December 31, 2024 payment.

Donna joined Kiplinger as a personal finance writer in 2023. She spent more than a decade as the contributing editor of J.K.Lasser's Your Income Tax Guide and edited state specific legal treatises at ALM Media. She has shared her expertise as a guest on Bloomberg, CNN, Fox, NPR, CNBC and many other media outlets around the nation. She is a graduate of Brooklyn Law School and the University at Buffalo.