Social Security set to announce benefit increase

WASHINGTON (AP) — More than 56 million Social Security recipients will soon find out how much their monthly payments will go up next year.

The increase is tied to a government measure of inflation being released Tuesday morning.

Preliminary figures indicate the increase will be between 1 percent and 2 percent. That would be among the lowest since automatic annual adjustments were adopted in 1975.

The small increase reflects relatively low inflation over the past year. This year’s increase was 3.6 percent.

Social Security payments for retired workers average $1,237 a month, or about $14,800 a year.

About 8 million people who receive Supplemental Security Income will also receive the increase, meaning the announcement will affect about one in five U.S. residents.