Frank Bisignano, the commissioner of the Social Security Administration (SSA), recently assured the public that Social Security will continue for another 90 years. Speaking on CNBC’s “Squawk Box,” he emphasized the program’s enduring stability, noting, “This is a long journey. It’s 90 years old. It’ll be around for another 90 years.”
The SSA plans to release its annual cost-of-living adjustment (COLA) soon, following data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) regarding September’s inflation, measured by the consumer price index (CPI). For this year, the SSA raised benefits for about 75 million Social Security recipients by 2.8 percent.
The Senior Citizens League forecasts a 3.5 percent COLA for 2027, potentially marking the fourth-highest adjustment since 2008. If this happens, the average monthly Social Security benefit, first distributed by the federal government in 1937, would rise from $1,941.76 to $2,009.72, using August’s SSA data as a baseline. Bisignano remarked on the importance of the COLA, stating, “People are very, very grateful for it, and they look forward to it.”
Earlier this year, Bisignano and other officials in the Trump administration indicated that starting in the early 2030s, the Social Security’s Old-Age and Survivors Insurance (OASI) Trust Fund will only cover 78 percent of scheduled benefits.