See how much the average Social Security check will increase in 2025

On Thursday, October 10, the Social Security Administration (SSA) announced that all program beneficiaries would see a 2.5 percent increase in the value of your benefits in 2025. The increase, commonly referred to as a Cost of Living Adjustment (COLA), is calculated annually to prevent inflation from decreasing the purchasing power of benefits. The COLA offered next year is lower than the 3.2% offered this year, and the fraction of the 8.7% increase applied to benefits in 2023.

Starting in late December, the SSA will begin sending checks for the updated amount. To get an idea of how much the benefits will increase, we apply the 2.5% increase to the average number of benefit checks distributed in August.

How to calculate the value of your new benefit

For those who want to calculate their individual increase, you can do this by:

Benefit increase = (benefit value in 2024) x (2.5%)

New benefit value = (benefit increase) + (2024 benefit value)

For example, the average Social Security check for a retired worker was $1,920.48So the math would be something like this:

Benefit increase = 1,920.48 x (2.5 percent) = $48.01

New benefit amount = $1,920.48 + $48.01 = $1,968.49

How Average Benefits Will Be Affected

From a broader perspective, benefit amounts for qualifying children, spouses, and surviving relatives will look something like this:

Social Security Benefits

Retired workers: $1,968.49
Spouses of retired workers: $932.52
Children of retired workers: $915.00

Survivor Benefits

Children of deceased workers: $1,131.18
Widowed mothers and fathers: $1,318.31
Widows without disabilities: $1,829.17
Disabled Widows: $950.90
Parents of deceased workers: $1,660.08

Disability insurance

Workers with Disabilities: $1,578.42
Spouses of workers with disabilities: $432.12
Children of workers with disabilities: $504.33

What about supplemental security income?

Supplemental Security Income (SSI) beneficiaries also have COLA applied to their benefits.

All recipients: $715.97
- Under 18: $841.22
- 18–64: $763.02
- Age 65 and older: $589.45

Given that these installments are deposited on the first day of the month, which is a public holiday in January, they will be deposited on Tuesday, December 31.