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What's Happening with Social Security in 2026?
Every year, Social Security checks usually go up a little bit.
This increase is called a COLA, which stands for Cost of Living Adjustment. The government does this to help older people keep up with rising prices.
On October 24, 2025, the Social Security Administration announced what the 2026 raise would be. Experts called the Senior Citizens League predicted it would be about 2.7%.
That's actually bigger than the 2.5% raise retirees got in 2025, so that sounds like good news, right?
Not so fast. There’s a problem…
The Problem: Medicare Premiums Are Going Up Too
Here's the surprising part that will disappoint many retirees: most of their raise will disappear because of Medicare costs.
Medicare is the health insurance program for people 65 and older. Most retirees have Medicare premiums (the monthly cost for insurance) taken directly out of their Social Security checks. And in 2026, Medicare Part B premiums are jumping way up—from $185 per month to $206.50 per month. That's an increase of $21.50 each month, which is one of the biggest jumps in Medicare's history.
Let's Do the Math
Here's an example using the average Social Security check:
The average retiree gets $2,008.31 per month in 2025
A 2.7% raise would add about $54 to that check
But if $21.50 goes to pay for higher Medicare premiums, the retiree only keeps $32.50 extra
Compare that to last year:
A 2.5% raise in 2025 added about $50 to checks
Medicare premiums only went up $10.30
So retirees got to keep about $40 extra
Even though the 2026 raise is bigger (2.7% versus 2.5%), retirees will actually see less extra money in their pockets ($32.50 versus $40) because Medicare costs are eating up so much of it.
What This Means for Retirees
The article, written by Christy Bieber for The Motley Fool on October 20, 2025, explains that retirees need to plan carefully for 2026. Since they won't get as much extra money as the raise percentage suggests, they'll need to budget carefully and be smart about how much money they take out of their retirement savings accounts like 401(k)s.
The bottom line: a bigger raise doesn't always mean more money in your pocket when other costs are going up even faster.