COLA Ledger

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

The 2021 Social Security COLA — 1.3%

Cost-of-living adjustment, 2021

1.3%

This adjustment was determined in 2020, took effect with benefits payable for December 2020, and first reached checks in January 2021.

Determined in
2020December-effective
First in a check
January 2021
Comparison quarter
Q3 2020CPI-W 253.412
Base quarter
Q3 2019CPI-W 250.200

SSA’s own table lists this adjustment under 2020, 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 1.3%

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 2021 adjustment
QuarterMonthCPI-W index
Base — Q3 2019July 2019250.236
August 2019250.112
September 2019250.251
Base quarter average250.200
Comparison — Q3 2020July 2020252.636
August 2020253.597
September 2020254.004
Comparison quarter average253.412

The quarterly averages are rounded to three decimal places — the precision the determination-2020 notice specifies — and the percentage increase between them is then rounded to the nearest tenth of a percentage point. That gives 1.3%.

Reproduced from the raw index

Recomputing this adjustment from the committed CPI-W series returns 1.3%, 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 1.3% 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 2021 adjustment on two benchmark monthly benefits
Monthly benefit beforeAfter the adjustmentMonthly increaseOver a year
$1,000$1,013+$13+$156
$2,000$2,026+$26+$312

Medicare changes the answer. In 2021 the Part B standard premium was $148.50 against $144.60 the year before, so a $2,000 benefit gained +$26 gross but only +$22 net — an effective raise of 1.19% against a headline 1.3%. The full ledger for that amount.

The 2021 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 2021, each traced to the government table it came from.

Committed Social Security and Medicare parameters for 2021
Parameter2021
Maximum earnings subject to Social Security tax$142,800
SSI federal payment rate — individual$794
SSI federal payment rate — couple$1,191
Earnings needed for one Social Security credit$1,470
Retirement earnings test — under full retirement age$18,960
Retirement earnings test — year of full retirement age$50,520
Substantial gainful activity — non-blind$1,310
Substantial gainful activity — blind$2,190
Trial work period — a service month$940
First PIA bend point (eligibility at 62 this year)$996
Second PIA bend point (eligibility at 62 this year)$6,002
Medicare Part B standard monthly premium$148.50
Medicare Part B annual deductible$203

Where to go next

Sources and freshness

Figures effective December 2020. 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