As we move into 2025, retired railroad employees can anticipate a welcome increase in their Railroad Retirement Annuity thanks to cost-of-living adjustments (COLA). These adjustments are critical for helping retirees keep up with inflation and rising expenses. Let’s look at how the 2025 COLA increase will impact both the Tier I and Tier II portions of railroad retirement benefits.
We are now in the second month of 2023, and thankfully due to the increase in COLA, you should be receiving more money since the COLA benefit rose to 8.7% in Tier 1 and 2.8% in Tier 2 for railroad retirement benefits.
Annually in October, the Social Security Administration (SSA) and the Railroad Retirement Board (RRB) announce the cost-of-living adjustment (COLA) for the upcoming year. Every year there are questions from a new widow(er) pertaining to why they did not receive a COLA. They are worried they are not receiving their benefits properly and do not understand why others received them but did not. In some cases, due to a rise in Medicare premiums, they actually see their take-home amount lowered as well.