The 2026 COLA increase might be just 2.4%—the lowest in years. Here’s how shrinking Social Security raises housing risks for retirees.

The projection for Social Security's 2026 cost-of-living adjustment rose to 2.7% as inflation trends higher, as the program faces insolvency challenges in less than a decade.

The latest inflation figures suggest a potential 2.7 percent cost-of-living adjustment for Social Security recipients in 2026, based on updated estimates published on August 12. This projection follows the release of July data from the Consumer Price Index,

In the beginning, the aims of Social Security were both noble and modest. “We have tried to frame a law,” said President Franklin D. Roosevelt at the signing of the Social Security Act, “which will give some measure of protection to the average citizen and to his family against the loss of a job and against poverty-ridden old age.