Social Security's Falling 2027 COLA Estimate Has a Silver Lining Retirees Should Know About

A new outlook for Social Security’s 2027 cost-of-living adjustment (COLA) suggests the projected increase has been sliding to the mid-3% range, despite earlier expectations of a larger raise. An independent Social Security analyst, Mary Johnson, cut her forecast from 4.7% to 3.4%. The Senior Citizens League reduced its working estimate from 3.8% in June and July to 3.6% earlier this month. Averaging projections points to a COLA solidly in the mid-3%. The article argues this is not automatically negative: smaller COLAs generally signal cooling inflation, since benefits are tied to CPI-W changes. The official figure is expected in mid-October, using two more months of data.