Increased payments to SSI recipients will begin on December 29. For the elderly, it guarantees that their foundation of retirement income will remain strong for as long as they live. This year's increase in the CPI-W was 3.5 percent. This figure reflects the revision to the CPI released by the Bureau of Labor Statistics on September 28. Automatic COLAs became effective in 1975.
Wages continue to grow faster than inflation.
This is good news for American workers. About 10.9 million workers are affected by the higher wage base in 2001. The Internet site for the Health Care Financing Administration. A fact sheet showing the effect of the various automatic adjustments is available here . Also look there for information on subscribing to SSA's free electronic newsletter, Social Security e-news.