Social Security recipients get an annual cost-of-living adjustment (COLA) to help protect the buying power of benefits from the effects of inflation. That protection mechanism has been especially crucial in recent years, as pandemic-era stimulus programs and loose monetary policy helped push U.S. inflation to a four-decade high in 2022.

One consequence of that unfortunate situation was an 8.7% COLA for recipients in 2023, the largest raise since 1982 and the fourth-largest raise since annual COLAs became law in 1975.

And that unusually large increase came on the heels of another unusually big increase: a 5.9% COLA in 2022, which also qualifies as one of the biggest in program history.

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Source Fool.com