Social Security recipients are on track to receive the biggest cost-of-living raise in four decades, driven by a rapidly rebounding economy that’s caused the biggest surge in inflation in years, Fox Business reported. The Senior Citizens League, a nonpartisan group that focuses on issues relating to older Americans, estimated the adjustment could be as high as 6.1 percent, based on June inflation data, which showed that consumer prices in June spiked 5.4 percent from a year prior, the fastest year-over-year jump since 2008. The annual Social Security change is calculated based on the Consumer Price Index for Urban Wage Earners and Clerical Workers (CPI-W). Should Social Security beneficiaries see a 6.1 percent increase to their monthly checks next year, it would mark the steepest annual adjustment since 1983, when recipients saw a 7.4 percent bump. The Senior Citizens League previously predicted the COLA for 2022 could be 5.3 percent based on data from May. In 2021, recipients received one of the lowest COLA increases in years, with an increase of just 1.3 percent, or about an extra $20 a month for retirees.
