The federal government is expected to release a key report on Wednesday, Oct. 30, which will be used to determine the Social Security cost-of-living adjustment for 2014.
The release of this report — September’s Consumer Price Index figure — was delayed due to the shutdown of the federal government earlier this month.
The COLA is determined by the change in the “consumer price index for urban wage earners and clerical workers, from the third quarter of the previous year (2012) to the third quarter of the current year,” according to the Social Security Administration. This figure is determined by the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
That means the government uses the average of the consumer price numbers from July, August and September; the delay in the September figure has meant retirees, disabled workers and other Social Security beneficiaries must wait to find out how much benefits might increase next year.
The Associated Press has suggested preliminary information points to an increase of about 1.5 percent.
The increase for 2013 was 1.7 percent, following a 3.6 percent jump for 2012. Recipients in 2011 and ’10 received no cost-of-living adjustment at all, because inflation was too low.
