Social Security notices showing cost-of-living increases available online for retirees

If you're wondering how much bigger your Social Security paycheck will be next year, you can find out now online.

The Social Security Administration recently released its cost-of-living adjustment, or COLA, notices online. Retirees also will receive COLA notices by mail.

Simply log onto your My Social Security account at https://secure.ssa.gov/RIL/SiView.action to find out your new 2019 payment. The COLA notice will be located in the message center.

The notices show how the 2.8 percent COLA hike for 2019 announced in October will affect your monthly government paycheck. The increase is the largest since 2012, when the annual bump in social security benefits was 3.6 percent.

The agency began mailing its paper notices on Dec. 3, a process that will continue through Dec. 21, according to Dorothy Clark, an agency spokesperson. The SSA also began mailing COLA notices for supplemental security income benefits on Nov. 26 and will continue through Dec. 14.

FILE - In this Feb. 11, 2005 file photo, trays of printed social security checks wait to be mailed from the U.S. Treasury's Financial Management services facility in Philadelphia.  For the second straight year, millions of Social Security recipients can expect an historically small increase in benefits come January 2014.  (AP Photo/Bradley C. Bower, File) ORG XMIT: WX204

In the future, retirees will be able to choose to receive their notice online instead of by mail.

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Representative payees, individuals with foreign mailing addresses and those who pay higher Medicare premiums because of their income won't receive online notices this year. However, the SSA plans to provide online COLA notices to more people in the future.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Social Security notices showing cost-of-living increases available online for retirees

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