With a little more than a month before the 2025 COLA kicks in, here's what you should know about the upcoming adjustment.

But a 2.5% COLA for 2025 stings because it's the smallest one to arrive in years. At the start of 2024, seniors on Social Security saw their benefits increase by 3.2%. And the year prior, Social Security recipients got a record-breaking 8.7% COLA. So a raise of just 2.5% seems awfully meager by comparison.

Last month, the Social Security Administration announced that the next cost-of-living adjustment (COLA) will be 2.5%. Here's why the average take-home Social Security increase will be roughly 20% lower than they might expect.