"...An early projection based on national inflation data by The Senior Citizens League (TSCL), a nonpartisan senior advocacy nonprofit, estimates rates will rise by 9.6%.
That increase would be the highest veterans and seniors have seen since 1981, when it went up 11.2% in response to inflation at the time, according to a TSCL press release.
For 2023, that means military retirees would see an average increase of more than $240 in their monthly retirement checks...."
"...Here is a a way-too-early look at Social Security’s 2021 COLA. We are 4 months away from the beginning of the 2021 measurement period but here are the early indicators for a potential COLA increase in 2021.
Find out why the novel coronavirus, aka COVID-19, may have a negative and positive impact on this year’s COLA increase..."
"...The Senate voted 95-3 on Wednesday to repeal cuts that would have reduced military retirement pay by tens of thousands of dollars for enlisted and officers alike. The House passed the same bill Tuesday by a vote of 326-90.
The legislation will now go to President Barack Obama.
The 1 percent reduction in the annual cost-of-living adjustment for current working-age military retirees, scheduled to go into effect in January 2016, was part of a bipartisan budget deal in December intended to reduce the federal budget deficit and partially restore some of the automatic budget cuts that were imposed on the Pentagon and other government agencies under sequestration..."
Read more at Stripes
"...The Senate cleared a key procedural hurdle Monday on a bill that would undo the cuts to military retirement pay introduced by the Bipartisan Budget Act.
Senators voted unanimously, 94-0, to advance the bill, which, if passed in a final vote this week, would repeal a section of the Ryan-Murray budget deal that reduces annual cost-of-living adjustment increases by 1 percentage point for “working age” retirees, starting in late 2015..."
Read more at Marine Corps Times
"...The Senate is poised to consider a massive veterans bill that not only would improve education, health and employment benefits for former troops, it would restore the cost-of-living adjustment reduction for military retirees set by the Bipartisan Budget Act.
The 352-page Comprehensive Veterans Health and Benefits and Military Retirement Pay Restoration bill, or S. 1950, encompasses many previously proposed legislative initiatives, from requiring..."
"...On Monday, most military working-age retirees will see a hefty 17 percent increase in what they annually pay for medical coverage under the military’s top managed care plan.
Tricare, the military’s health care program, was launched in 1993 and serves about 9.7 million active, reserve and Guard members, retirees and their family members. Until last fall, out-of-pocket costs for Tricare never had increased. But after years of Pentagon complaints and effective counter-lobbying by veterans’ groups, the billowing cost of military health care – $52.7 billion for the fiscal year about to end – gave birth to a compromise plan under which working-age retirees’ Tricare Prime fees would rise between 3.9 percent and 17 percent.
The legislation also allowed for annual increases limited to the military cost-of-living adjustment. Co-payments for pharmacy drugs were increased by $2 to $3, depending on the drug..."
"...The Congressional Budget Office is sticking with its projection of a 1.3 percent cost-of-living adjustment on Dec. 1 in military and civilian retired pay and Social Security. There had been discussion earlier this year that the annual COLA could be as high as 1.9 percent. However, a Sept. 12 statement from the nonpartisan budget office “assumes that the COLA effective on Dec., 1, 2012 would be 1.3 percent...
A final calculation of the COLA will be made in mid-October. While the adjustment takes effect on Dec. 1, it first appears in January payments..."
"...Military retired pay rises each year to ensure that inflation does not erode the purchasing power of retirees. These cost-of-living adjustments, known as COLAs, match the annual increase in Social Security benefits. They become effective each Dec. 1 and first show up in January paychecks.
The foundation for the COLA adjustment is the Labor Department’s Consumer Price Index, a measure of the cost of certain categories of goods and services that is updated monthly. There is one overall CPI, as well as a variety of more specific indexes. The index upon which the retired pay COLA is based is called the CPI for Urban Wage Earners and Clerical Workers, or CPI-W.
The rate of inflation may rise and fall throughout the year, but the exact increase in retired pay is based..."