Social Security beneficiaries to see 5.9 percent pay boost

Originally published by Roll Call–

Social Security recipients will get a 5.9 percent boost in benefits next year, representing the highest cost-of-living adjustment in almost four decades, the Social Security Administration announced Wednesday.

The inflation adjustment eclipses last year’s 1.3 percent increase and would be the highest since July 1982, according to the SSA, before benefits began being calculated in December the following year. The pay bump applies to both the roughly 64 million Social Security retiree and disability beneficiaries and 8 million Supplemental Security Income recipients, which include lower-income adults, children and individuals with disabilities.

On Wednesday, Rep. John B. Larson, D-Conn., head of the Ways and Means Subcommittee on Social Security, said he planned to introduce a revised version of his bill from the 116th Congress that would have combined an across-the-board benefit boost, more generous inflation adjustments and higher minimum benefits with higher payroll taxes.