COLA Ledger

An independent reference — not affiliated with the Social Security Administration. Every figure traced to the government publication that produced it.

The 2002 Social Security COLA — 2.6%

Cost-of-living adjustment, 2002

2.6%

This adjustment was determined in 2001, took effect with benefits payable for December 2001, and first reached checks in January 2002.

Determined in
2001December-effective
First in a check
January 2002
Comparison quarter
Q3 2001CPI-W 174.1
Base quarter
Q3 2000CPI-W 169.7

SSA’s own table lists this adjustment under 2001, the year it was determined. The public name it by the year it reaches a check, which is one later. This site uses the name people search for. Why the two labels disagree.

The CPI-W values behind the 2.6%

Every adjustment is an average of three monthly index readings against an average of three others. These are the six values, as the Bureau of Labor Statistics published them for series CWUR0000SA0 — all items, U.S. city average, not seasonally adjusted.

CPI-W monthly index values and quarterly averages behind the 2002 adjustment
QuarterMonthCPI-W index
Base — Q3 2000July 2000169.400
August 2000169.300
September 2000170.400
Base quarter average169.7
Comparison — Q3 2001July 2001173.800
August 2001173.800
September 2001174.800
Comparison quarter average174.1

The quarterly averages are rounded to the nearest tenth — the precision the determination-2001 notice specifies — and the percentage increase between them is then rounded to the nearest tenth of a percentage point. That gives 2.6%.

Reproduced from the raw index

Recomputing this adjustment from the committed CPI-W series returns 2.6%, matching SSA’s published figure. That check runs on all 51 determinations as a blocking build gate, so no page here can ship a figure the arithmetic does not support.

What 2.6% did to a benefit

Monthly benefit amounts are floored to the whole dollar after the adjustment is applied, which is why these figures are not simply the percentage multiplied out.

Effect of the 2002 adjustment on two benchmark monthly benefits
Monthly benefit beforeAfter the adjustmentMonthly increaseOver a year
$1,000$1,026+$26+$312
$2,000$2,052+$52+$624

The 2002 figures this adjustment set

Most Social Security parameters move with the adjustment or with the national average wage index. These are the committed values for 2002, each traced to the government table it came from.

Committed Social Security and Medicare parameters for 2002
Parameter2002
Maximum earnings subject to Social Security tax$84,900
SSI federal payment rate — individual$545
SSI federal payment rate — couple$817
Earnings needed for one Social Security credit$870
Retirement earnings test — under full retirement age$11,280
Retirement earnings test — year of full retirement age$30,000
Substantial gainful activity — non-blind$780
Substantial gainful activity — blind$1,300
Trial work period — a service month$560
First PIA bend point (eligibility at 62 this year)$592
Second PIA bend point (eligibility at 62 this year)$3,567

Where to go next

Sources and freshness

Figures effective December 2001. Page figures last verified against the sources above on 10 August 2026. BLS data retrieved 10 August 2026. BLS.gov cannot vouch for data or analyses derived from these data after retrieval. Corrections: the correction log · support@inventum.com.au