Here's the Average Social Security Retired Worker, Survivor, and Disability Benefit Check for 2026 -- How Do You Compare? | The Motley Fool

For most retirees, Social Security is more than just a monthly check. It represents a financial foundation that many would likely struggle to make do without. We know this because national pollster Gallup has been surveying retirees annually for the last 24 years to gauge the importance of Social Security income to their financial well-being. Consistently, 80% to 90% of retirees have noted that their Social Security check is necessary, in some capacity, to cover their expenses. With this being said, few announcements are more anticipated than Social Security's cost-of-living adjustment (COLA) reveal in October . With a history-making COLA on the way for the program's more than 70 million traditional beneficiaries (retired workers, survivors, and workers with disabilities), let's take a closer look at how much the average Social Security check will total in 2026. Image source: Getty Images. Social Security's COLA plays a vital role for beneficiaries Social Security's cost-of-living adjustment is effectively the "raise" passed along to program beneficiaries on a near-annual basis that helps them combat the effects of inflation (rising prices). Hypothetically, if the cost to purchase a large basket of goods and services rises by 3% from one year to the next, Social Security benefits would need to climb by the same percentage; otherwise, recipients would see the buying power of their Social Security income decline. Since 1975, the Consumer Price Index for Urban Wage Earners and Clerical Workers (CPI-W) has served as Social Security's measure of inflation. The CPI-W is comprised of more than 200 spending categories, each with its own unique percentage weightings. These weightings enable this inflationary index to be condensed into a single figure each month, making it easy to determine whether prices are collectively rising (inflation) or falling (deflation). But Social Security's COLA has a quirk . Even though CPI-W readings are based on the trailing 12-month period and reported monthly, only readings ending in July, August, and September (the third quarter) are factored into the COLA calculation. This is why COLA announcements occur in October, as we must wait until the Bureau of Labor Statistics releases the September inflation report (typically during the second week of October) before the upcoming year's raise can be calculated. An uptick in the U.S. inflation rate has led to a corresponding increase in Social Security COLAs for five consecutive years. US Inflation Rate data by YCharts . Here's the average benefit for retired workers, survivors, and workers with disabilities in 2026 On Oct. 24, following a nine-day delay due to the longest-ever federal government shutdown, the Social Security Administration (SSA) announced a 2.8% COLA for 2026. To put this figure into perspective, it represents a slightly higher raise than the 2.3% annual boost beneficiaries have received, on average, since 2010. Perhaps more importantly, the 2.8% increase to Social Security checks in the new year will mark the fifth consecutive COLA of at least 2.5%, following raises of 5.9%, 8.7%, 3.2%, and 2.5% from 2022 through 2025, respectively. The last time we observed...

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