A Senate bill would change how Social Security’s yearly raise is figured, so that it follows whichever is higher: the current index, known as the CPI-W, or a new index built around the spending of older Americans. Sen. Richard Blumenthal, a Connecticut Democrat, introduced the measure on October 27, 2025, and the bill text and a legislative tracker show no action since.
It is only a proposal, and the tracker shows no vote on it. The raise that takes effect in December is set under the current rules, which use the CPI-W alone.
How the bill would set the raise
The legislation, S. 3059, is called the Boosting Benefits and COLAs for Seniors Act. It rewrites the cost-of-living adjustment formula so that the Social Security Administration uses whichever index produces the higher percentage, either the Consumer Price Index for Urban Wage Earners and Clerical Workers (CPI-W) or the Consumer Price Index for Elderly Consumers (CPI-E).
The bill would order the Bureau of Labor Statistics to publish a monthly CPI-E tracking the spending of people 62 and older. Until that index exists, the text says references to it would mean the bureau’s research index for Americans 62 and older, called the R-CPI-E.
In practice, the raise could never come out lower than it does today. In a year when the older-Americans index rose faster than the CPI-W, the bigger number would set the raise, and in any other year the CPI-W would still apply. For retirees asking whether this changes their own raise, the answer for now is no, because the bill has not become law.
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What is different about the older-Americans index
The Bureau of Labor Statistics already calculates a version of it. Its R-CPI-E page describes a research index of price change based on the spending patterns of households with a person 62 or older, drawn from about one-fifth of the urban sample in the Consumer Expenditure Survey.
The bureau cautions that conclusions drawn from the index “should be treated as tentative,” and that it uses the same areas, stores and item categories as the CPI-U, which may not match older Americans’ spending. Government agencies have considered official uses for it but have not put it into practice.
The idea behind the older-Americans index is that it better reflects what retirees pay. A Democratic House office’s repost of a financial-news column on other Social Security proposals says the index “is designed to better reflect the prices seniors pay,” though that account gives no numbers comparing it with the CPI-W.
Where the bill stands and who backs it
Nine senators joined Blumenthal as cosponsors: Kirsten Gillibrand, Ruben Gallego, John Fetterman, Bernie Sanders, Peter Welch, Sheldon Whitehouse, Jack Reed, Elizabeth Warren and Angela Alsobrooks. The bill text shows it was referred to the Senate Finance Committee.
A legislative tracker, PolicyRisk, still lists the bill’s status as introduced. No committee hearing, vote or later action turned up, so it has not advanced toward a vote in the Senate or House.
The bill is also narrow. It has just two sections, the short title and the formula change, and it adds no new tax or funding provision. The text says other laws that tie increases to the Social Security raise would keep using the old method and would not automatically adopt the larger figure.
Does it touch the raise coming in January?
The bill says its changes would apply to cost-of-living computation quarters ending on or after September 30, 2026. That date has already passed, and the raise for next year was set using the old method. The two-section text does not say whether a raise already determined would be recalculated if the bill became law.
The Social Security Administration says the latest increase is 3.6 percent, for Social Security and SSI. It begins with December 2026 benefits, payable in January 2027, and SSI payments rise for January 2027, paid at the end of December.
That figure comes from the CPI-W, which rose from a third-quarter 2025 average of 317.265 to a third-quarter 2026 average of 328.746. The raise is that percentage increase, rounded to the nearest tenth.
Why a proposal like this keeps coming back
Congress has seen other attempts to raise benefits. That repost describes the Social Security Emergency Inflation Relief Act from Reps. John Larson and Steven Horsford and Sen. Warren, a temporary $200 monthly increase for January through July 2026, and the Social Security Expansion Act from Sanders, which would make a $200 monthly increase permanent and use the CPI-E for yearly raises.
Both appear in that account as proposals. For anyone on Social Security, the practical point is that the formula behind the December increase is the CPI-W alone, and S. 3059 has not reached a vote.
What households can plan around is the 3.6 percent already scheduled. SSA says it starts with December 2026 benefits, payable in January 2027, so the first raised deposits arrive after the new year.
Is the January raise landing on the right date?
A formula change in Congress is far off, but the January deposit is close. People who budget around a raise need to know which day of the month their check lands, and what to do if it does not arrive.
The Social Security Check Protection Kit puts the 2026 payment calendar in one place, along with a first-24-hours plan for a late or missing payment. It is built for beneficiaries who want the payment date and the steps for a problem in front of them before they need them.
Get the payment calendar and late-check plan in the Social Security Check Protection Kit →
More Financial Reading
- 21 Ways to Stretch a $2,087 Social Security Check
- 15 Places to Find Your Share of the $4.25 Billion States Give Back
- 15 Ways Retirees Are Tapping a Record $14.9 Trillion in Home Equity
This article was produced with AI assistance and edited for accuracy against the sources linked above.
