FINANCE
Final May Social Security benefit worth up to $4,873 will be sent this week: Are you getting one?
This week, the SSA will send out the final round of Social Security payments for May. The benefit is worth up to $4,873, but the average sits closer to $1,900.
The Social Security Adminstration (SSA) is preparing to send the final round of Social Security checks for May, which will hit bank accounts on Wednesday, 29 May. According to data the federal agency published on the payments made in April, the average check for a retired worker was $1,915.26, while for spouses and children of eligible workers, it was 911.42 and $893.53, respectively.
When will Social Security benefits be paid in June?
The next round of payments will begin on 3 June, with those who retired before May 1997 set to receive their June payment. The SSA will then, beginning on Wednesday, 12 June, begin making payments to those born between the 1st and the 10th of any month. Typically, these payments are made on Wednesdays, but since Wednesday, 19 June, is a public holiday, Juneteenth,’ beneficiaries with birthdays between the 11th and 20th of any month will be paid the day before. The group set to receive their benefits this week will see their June payment made on Wednesday, 26 June.
How high could the 2025 COLA be?
Unless prices begin to fall, Social Security beneficiaries and all those who receive payments from the SSA could see a 2.6 percent bump applied to their checks next year, if current inflationary patterns are followed. This would be lower than the 2024 COLA by 0.6 percentage points, being the lowest COLA for five years.
How is the COLA calculated?
The SSA uses the Bureau of Labor Statistics Consumer Price Index for Urban Wage Earners and Clerical Workers (CPI-W) to calculate the COLA. The CPI-W tends to be lower than the CPI for All Urban Consumers (CPI-U) because it looks beyond just those shopping in cities where the standard of living tends to be higher.
Then, the SSA takes the average of the CPI-W for July, August, and September and compares that figure to the number recorded in October of the previous year. In October 2023, the CPI-W stood at 292.991, and by April, it had jumped to 297.265 (or 1.45 percent). The CPI-U, on the other hand, rose 1.65 percent.