$600 Social Security SSI Payment: A lot of posts have been going around on Facebook and other sites saying that Social Security recipients will be getting a one-time $600 payment. These messages have spread super fast, leaving many older adults and people with disabilities confused and hopeful about a big check. But the $600 payment is false.
So many people believed the rumour that the Social Security Administration (SSA) got flooded with phone calls more than 463,000 in just a few weeks. Most of the calls came from seniors and disabled folks wanting to know if the extra money was real. The SSA had to clear things up and said very clearly that no such $600 payment has been approved, announced, or even talked about officially.
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No one really knows where the $600 number came from, but it definitely didn’t come from the SSA. Officials there have said they haven’t discussed any kind of lump-sum cost-of-living increase. These kinds of false rumours can really hurt because many people depend on Social Security just to get by. Some even started planning their budgets around that extra payment, only to be disappointed when they learned it wasn’t true.
COLA 2025: What will happen with Social Security payments?
Each year, Social Security benefits go up a little to help people keep up with rising costs. That increase is called the Cost-of-Living Adjustment, or COLA. It’s not random and it’s not based on surprise announcements. The SSA uses something called the Consumer Price Index for Urban Wage Earners and Clerical Workers (CPI-W) to see how much prices for everyday stuff like food, gas, and medicine have gone up. That’s how they figure out the COLA.
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For 2025 the actual COLA is 2.5 percent. That means most people will get around $50 more each month. It’s not a lot, but it helps a little. This is a long way from the $600 some people thought they were getting. Still, the yearly increase helps seniors and others on Social Security deal with inflation bit by bit.
The SSA always announces the new COLA in the fall, usually around October. They base it on how prices changed in the third quarter of the year July, August, and September. That’s how it’s worked for years, and that’s not changing.
