COLA Ledger

An independent reference — not affiliated with the Social Security Administration. Every figure traced to the government publication that produced it.

The 2013 Social Security COLA — 1.7%

Cost-of-living adjustment, 2013

1.7%

This adjustment was determined in 2012, took effect with benefits payable for December 2012, and first reached checks in January 2013.

Determined in
2012December-effective
First in a check
January 2013
Comparison quarter
Q3 2012CPI-W 226.936
Base quarter
Q3 2011CPI-W 223.233

SSA’s own table lists this adjustment under 2012, the year it was determined. The public name it by the year it reaches a check, which is one later. This site uses the name people search for. Why the two labels disagree.

The CPI-W values behind the 1.7%

Every adjustment is an average of three monthly index readings against an average of three others. These are the six values, as the Bureau of Labor Statistics published them for series CWUR0000SA0 — all items, U.S. city average, not seasonally adjusted.

CPI-W monthly index values and quarterly averages behind the 2013 adjustment
QuarterMonthCPI-W index
Base — Q3 2011July 2011222.686
August 2011223.326
September 2011223.688
Base quarter average223.233
Comparison — Q3 2012July 2012225.568
August 2012227.056
September 2012228.184
Comparison quarter average226.936

The quarterly averages are rounded to three decimal places — the precision the determination-2012 notice specifies — and the percentage increase between them is then rounded to the nearest tenth of a percentage point. That gives 1.7%.

Reproduced from the raw index

Recomputing this adjustment from the committed CPI-W series returns 1.7%, matching SSA’s published figure. That check runs on all 51 determinations as a blocking build gate, so no page here can ship a figure the arithmetic does not support.

What 1.7% did to a benefit

Monthly benefit amounts are floored to the whole dollar after the adjustment is applied, which is why these figures are not simply the percentage multiplied out.

Effect of the 2013 adjustment on two benchmark monthly benefits
Monthly benefit beforeAfter the adjustmentMonthly increaseOver a year
$1,000$1,017+$17+$204
$2,000$2,034+$34+$408

Medicare changes the answer. In 2013 the Part B standard premium was $104.90 against $99.90 the year before, so a $2,000 benefit gained +$34 gross but only +$29 net — an effective raise of 1.53% against a headline 1.7%. The full ledger for that amount.

The 2013 figures this adjustment set

Most Social Security parameters move with the adjustment or with the national average wage index. These are the committed values for 2013, each traced to the government table it came from.

Committed Social Security and Medicare parameters for 2013
Parameter2013
Maximum earnings subject to Social Security tax$113,700
SSI federal payment rate — individual$710
SSI federal payment rate — couple$1,066
Earnings needed for one Social Security credit$1,160
Retirement earnings test — under full retirement age$15,120
Retirement earnings test — year of full retirement age$40,080
Substantial gainful activity — non-blind$1,040
Substantial gainful activity — blind$1,740
Trial work period — a service month$750
First PIA bend point (eligibility at 62 this year)$791
Second PIA bend point (eligibility at 62 this year)$4,768
Medicare Part B standard monthly premium$104.90
Medicare Part B annual deductible$147

Where to go next

Sources and freshness

Figures effective December 2012. Page figures last verified against the sources above on 10 August 2026. BLS data retrieved 10 August 2026. BLS.gov cannot vouch for data or analyses derived from these data after retrieval. Corrections: the correction log · support@inventum.com.au