3.2% Hike In Social Security Benefits Coming To 249K GA Residents

GEORGIA — The estimated 249,000 Social Security recipients in Georgia will get a 3.2 percent cost-of-living adjustment next year, the Social Security Administration said Thursday.

About 71 million people nationwide — including retirees, people considered disabled and children — receive Social Security benefits. The average Social Security recipient will get a pay bump of about $50 a month, starting in January.

That will affect 42,163 recipients under the age of 18, 144,053 recipients between the ages of 18 and 64 and 62,912 who are age 65 and older.

Of the estimated 249,000 Georgia recipients, 26,800 are considered aged and 222,328 are considered blind and disabled.

The raise is far less than this year’s historic 9 percent boost to Social Security benefits to offset 40-year-high inflation. Social Security is financed by payroll taxes collected from workers and their employers.

Still, advocates for older Americans applauded the annual adjustment.

“Retirees can rest a little easier at night knowing they will soon receive an increase in their Social Security checks to help them keep up with rising prices,” AARP CEO Jo Ann Jenkins told The Associated Press. “We know older Americans are still feeling the sting when they buy groceries and gas, making every dollar important.”

Social Security is financed by payroll taxes collected from workers and their employers. The maximum amount of earnings subject to Social Security payroll taxes will be $168,600 for 2024, up from $160,200 for 2023.

The social insurance program faces a severe financial shortfall in coming years. The annual Social Security and Medicare trustees report released in March said the program’s trust fund will be unable to pay full benefits beginning in 2033. If that happens, the government will pay only 77 percent of scheduled benefits, the report said.

Congress has failed to advance legislative proposals to shore up Social Security from committees. Some would change the formula to calculate cost-of-living adjustments from the Bureau of Labor Statistics Consumer Price Index, to a different index, the CPI-E, which measures price changes based on spending patterns of the elderly, for example for health care, food and medicine.

Any change to the calculation would require congressional approval. But with decades of inaction on Social Security and with the House at a standstill after the ouster of Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-California, seniors and their advocates told the AP they don’t have confidence any sort of change will be approved soon.

The Associated Press contributed reporting.