The average Social Security benefit is approaching $2,000 per month for the first time. You'd think that would provide a comfortable supplement to personal savings for typical retirees, but it's often not the case.

Beginning in January 2025, retirees will see a 2.5% increase in their benefits. For the average retired worker, this means an additional $48 per month. Survivor beneficiaries and workers with disabilities will see smaller increases. As inflation begins to cool, the Social Security cost-of-living adjustment (COLA) for 2025 has been set at 2.5%.

President Joe Biden signed a measure into law on Sunday that boosts Social Security retirement payments to some retirees who draw public pensions, such as former police officers and firefighters, in what the White House described as the first expansion of such benefits in 20 years.

Many retirees look forward to Social Security's annual cost-of-living adjustment (COLA), which for 2025 is 2.5%. The COLA technically takes effect in December, with beneficiaries seeing updated payments in January.

Teachers, firefighters, police and others who earn a separate pension for government work will now get their full Social Security benefits.

Current and former public sector workers in Massachusetts are hailing the passage of the Social Security Fairness Act.

Social Security's 2025 cost-of-living adjustment (COLA) took effect in January. Benefits will increase 2.5% this year, the smallest pay bump for seniors since 2021. Indeed, more than half of retired workers surveyed by The Motley Fool in October said the COLA was insufficient.

Here's how a retired Canton City firefighter got invited to President Joe Biden's signing of the Social Security Fairness Act.

The Social Security Fairness Act eliminates two provisions that reduced Social Security benefits for some retirees who also received pension income.

"Americans who have worked hard all their lives to earn an honest living should be able to retire with economic security and dignity," Biden said.