Many people collect retirement benefits on their own work record, but not everyone does. If your spouse earned more money than you throughout your working lives, collecting spousal benefits could be a better bet to maximize your income in retirement. These benefits could equal up to 50% of your spouse's standard benefit.
If you're collecting them, they likely are an important income source for you, so it's important to understand how exactly these benefits work and what buying power they provide. That's why it's essential that you know the rules for when and if you get a cost-of-living adjustment (COLA) as a spousal benefits recipient.
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Here's what you need to know about COLAs on spousal benefits
If you are collecting spousal benefits in 2025, then you will most likely be entitled to a benefits increase in 2026. This increase is happening across the board for everyone who receives income from the Social Security Administration. This includes people receiving:
- Retirement benefits.
- Survivor benefits.
- Spousal benefits.
- Supplemental Security Income (SSI) benefits.
- Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) benefits.
The Cost of Living Adjustment happens automatically across the board, and it applies on a percentage basis, increasing your current benefits. You can get a rough idea of how much your COLA will increase your check by multiplying your current benefit by the amount of the benefit increase, although this isn't quite how it's calculated, as the COLA is actually applied to the primary benefit. Still, this formula gets you close enough to estimating what your raise will be.
If you are covered by Medicare and your Part B premiums are withdrawn from your Social Security payments, then you'll also need to account for the increase in Medicare premiums that's coming in 2026 when determining how your Social Security benefits will change next year.
Medicare premiums are projected to increase by $21.50 next year (although this number isn't finalized), so this extra money you owe for insurance will come off the benefits increase that you are entitled to receive. You need to understand both how cost-of-living adjustments work and how much the Medicare premiums are to get an idea of how your spousal benefit payments will be changing in 2026.
How much is the COLA, and what does it mean for your finances?
So, now that you know you are getting a cost-of-living adjustment, the next question is: How much will benefits go up? There won't be a definitive answer to that question until Oct. 24, 2025. That's because the data won't be available until later this month to calculate your COLA.
Cost-of-Living Adjustments are intended to ensure people who collect Social Security benefits don't lose buying power as a result of inflation. As a result, the formula used to determine the amount of the COLA is pegged to inflation. Specifically, third-quarter data from the Consumer Price Index for Urban Wage Earners and Clerical Workers (CPI-W) is analyzed. The Social Security Administration calculates your COLA by determining the average increase in CPI-W year over year.
The Bureau of Labor Statistics collects information on the price of goods and services to put together price indexes like the CPI-W, and with the government shutdown currently in effect in the United States in mid-October, that data will be delayed this year. It's normally available in the middle of the month, but Oct. 24 is the new date.
Still, while we don't yet have a definite answer on the amount of the COLA, the Senior Citizens League is projecting a 2.7% benefits increase. This would be larger than the 2.5% increase from 2025, but smaller than the COLAs during several of the years before that, as high COLAs have become the norm in the post-COVID era due to surging inflation.
If the 2.7% COLA projections hold, your spousal benefits should increase by around that much, minus the cost of additional Medicare premiums, so you can expect to have some extra spousal benefits in the upcoming year.
