Key takeaways
- The Social Security Administration announced a 3.6% cost-of-living adjustment for 2027 on Oct. 14, up from 2.8% for 2026.
- According to CNBC, you need a My Social Security account and a switch to paperless notices by Nov. 18 to see your notice online instead of waiting for December mail.
- Medicare premium amounts for 2027 are due in the My Social Security message center starting in late November, and Part B and Part D increases can shrink your net raise.
- Multiplying your current benefit by 0.036 gives a rough estimate of your increase before any Medicare deductions.
The Social Security Administration announced a 3.6% cost-of-living adjustment for 2027 on Wednesday, Oct. 14, shortly after the Labor Department reported that September prices were up 3.7% from a year earlier. The raise itself is settled. What’s left for most people is paperwork: how you’ll learn your exact new amount, and how much of it Medicare will take back.
If you’d rather see that notice on a screen than wait for the mail, there’s a date to hit. According to CNBC, it’s Nov. 18.
When will my 2027 COLA notice show up?
SSA will begin notifying beneficiaries through its online portal in late November, according to CNBC and Business Insider. People not signed up for online notices get a mailed letter in December. The higher Social Security payments themselves start in January, with SSI on a slightly earlier schedule.
About 7.3 million SSI recipients will see the increase starting Dec. 31, 2026, per CBS News and CNBC. The COLA covers both programs, so if a parent gets SSI, the money arrives a few days ahead of the January Social Security checks.
The Nov. 18 paperless deadline
To see the COLA notice online, CNBC reports, anyone without a My Social Security account must set one up and switch to paperless notices by Nov. 18. Miss that date and you’re in the December mail group. Your 3.6% raise is the same either way.
That’s a fairly small penalty. The deadline is about how the notice reaches you, not about whether the 3.6% applies to you. Still, a paper letter that lands in December leaves less time to plan around the new amount, and you’d see the Medicare premium figures later too.
CNBC also says beneficiaries should keep their mailing address current. That matters even if you go paperless, since anyone who isn’t signed up gets the December letter at whatever address SSA has on file.
Setting up the account before the 18th
The coverage doesn’t spell out the sign-up screens, so I won’t pretend to. What’s reported is the requirement: an online My Social Security account, plus the paperless-notice opt-in. SSA’s own sign-up pages carry the specifics, including whatever identity checks and documents it asks for.
If you’re doing this for a parent, don’t leave it to the 17th. Sit down together well ahead of the deadline so there’s room if something doesn’t go through on the first try. It’s their account, so they should be in the room.
Once the notice is in, save a copy with the rest of the benefit paperwork. A printed page in a folder works fine.
Open the My Social Security message center. CNBC reports that 2027 Medicare premium amounts will be posted there starting in late November. Part B and Part D increases, which may be deducted straight from your check, can reduce the net benefit you actually receive.
For a ballpark before then, CNBC suggests multiplying your current benefit by 0.036. Then set that figure against the Part B premium. CNBC cites a trustees’ projection of $209.50 for the 2027 standard Part B premium, compared with $202.90 this year. It’s a projection, not a final number, and any Part D change would come on top.
Subtract the Part B increase from your estimated raise and you have a rough sense of what’s left. That’s my arithmetic suggestion, not an SSA calculation, and it assumes you pay the standard Part B amount through your check. CNBC also flags IRMAA surcharges, which can raise Medicare costs for higher-income beneficiaries. If the message center shows a different number than you expected, that’s the first place to look.
Why it matters if you’re helping a parent
The average retiree’s benefit rises by about $75 a month, according to most of the coverage. The Senior Citizens League puts it at $75.15. Business Insider attributes a figure of about $900 a year to AARP calculations. That’s the headline, and it’s before Medicare.
It also trails prices. September inflation ran 3.7%, a point above the COLA, and CBS notes that the 2026 COLA of 2.8% has lagged inflation for the last seven months. Max Richtman, who runs a seniors’ advocacy group that backs a switch to CPI-E, put it bluntly in NPR’s coverage:
“It won’t be enough for most seniors to even tread water financially.”
That’s an advocate’s view, but the gap between 3.6% and 3.7% is there in the numbers. My advice: build the family budget on the net deposit in January, not the 3.6% headline. The message center number is the one that tells you that.
For households leaning hardest on the check, the stakes are bigger. The Senior Citizens League’s survey puts the share of seniors living entirely on Social Security at 44%. That’s a survey from an advocacy group, and other groups measure reliance differently.
What nobody can say yet
The biggest open item is the net effect. How much of the 3.6% Medicare Part B and Part D increases absorb for a typical beneficiary isn’t known until the late-November premium postings. The $209.50 Part B figure is still a projection.
Even the headcount is fuzzy. SSA says it will apply the COLA for 76 million Americans, but CNBC says around 72 million Social Security recipients see increases in January, with the rest being SSI recipients paid from Dec. 31. CBS says more than 75 million.
The account steps and what SSA requires to verify a new user aren’t covered in the reporting. And beyond your own mailbox, bigger questions hang over the program: whether Congress acts on switching to the CPI-E index that critics prefer, and the trustees’ warning that the retirement trust fund can’t pay full benefits at the end of 2032 without new funding. Fed policymakers also meet in about two weeks, with investors seeing roughly a 50-50 chance of a rate hike, according to NPR. How long energy-driven inflation lasts will shape the 2028 adjustment, and that’s not yet reported.
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Frequently asked questions
What is the Nov. 18 Social Security deadline?
According to CNBC, it's the date by which people without an online My Social Security account must create one and switch to paperless notices to see their 2027 COLA notice online. Anyone not signed up gets a mailed notice in December.
When do the higher Social Security payments start?
Higher Social Security payments begin in January 2027. About 7.3 million SSI recipients see the increase starting Dec. 31, 2026.
How can I estimate my 2027 increase?
CNBC says to multiply your current benefit by 0.036. The result is a rough estimate of your raise before any Medicare deductions.
In the My Social Security message center, starting in late November, according to CNBC. Part B and Part D increases that are deducted from your check can reduce the net raise.
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Sources
This article was compiled from reporting by the following outlets. Links go to the original reports.
- Axios: Social Security recipients will see rise in monthly payments next year
- NPR: Inflation sizzled in September — and Social Security benefits will get a boost
- Business Insider: Social Security recipients will get a 3.6% cost-of-living increase in 2027
- CBS News: Social Security announces cost-of-living increase for 2027
- CNBC Top: Social Security Administration announces 3.6% cost-of-living adjustment for 2027
- NBC News: Social Security recipients will receive a 3.6% cost-of-living increase in 2027