SSA's 2027 Determinations Notice: Official SSI, SGA and COLA Figures

SSA's 2027 Determinations Notice: Official SSI, SGA and COLA Figures

The Social Security Administration has filed its annual determinations notice for 2027. The document fixes a 3.6 percent cost-of-living increase effective December 2026 and sets every dependent threshold, from the $1,770 substantial gainful activity amount to the $192,300 taxable maximum.

Information last verified on October 24, 2026.

Status: The notice is on public inspection at the Office of the Federal Register. SSA filed it on October 23, 2026 at 8:45 a.m. as FR Doc. 2026-21796, and it is scheduled for publication on October 26, 2026, where it will carry the citation 91 FR 67380 and run from page 67380 to page 67385. Every figure below is read from the public inspection copy, which is the text as filed.

Jurisdiction scope: This article covers United States federal law, specifically titles II, VIII and XVI of the Social Security Act as applied in SSA's 2027 determinations notice. It does not cover state SSI supplements, Medicare premiums or deductibles, which this notice does not address, or veterans compensation, which moves on a separate track described in our report on 2027 VA disability rates.

What Happened

SSA filed Cost-of-Living Increase and Other Determinations for 2027 with the Office of the Federal Register on October 23, 2026 at 8:45 a.m. The notice carries Docket No. SSA-2026-1024 and document number 2026-21796, and the Federal Register's own record for it gives the citation 91 FR 67380, pages 67380 to 67385, publication date October 26, 2026. Mark Steffensen, listed as SSA's Chief of Law, Policy and Legislative Affairs and General Counsel, signed it.

The notice makes three determinations the statute requires it to publish, and derives the program amounts from the first two. It declares a 3.6 percent cost-of-living increase in Social Security benefits effective December 2026 under section 215(i) of the Social Security Act, it sets the national average wage index for 2025 at $72,800.33, and it reports the 2026 OASDI fund ratio at 151.3 percent. The first two numbers fix the rest: SSI payment rates, the taxable maximum, the retirement earnings test exempt amounts, substantial gainful activity, the trial work period threshold, the primary insurance amount bend points, the quarter of coverage amount and the coverage thresholds for domestic workers and election workers.

"Under title II, OASDI monthly benefits will increase by 3.6 percent for individuals eligible for December 2026 benefits, payable in January 2027 and thereafter."

Source: SSA, Cost-of-Living Increase and Other Determinations for 2027, FR Doc. 2026-21796, public inspection copy.

The 3.6 percent figure has been reported since SSA announced it earlier in October. The determinations notice is where the agency publishes the derivation behind it, together with every dependent threshold for 2027. The notice also records the statutory deadlines it is meeting: section 215(i)(2)(D) requires SSA to publish the benefit increase percentage and the revised special minimum benefit table within 45 days after the close of the third calendar quarter, and sections 203(f)(8)(A), 215(a)(1)(D), 230(a) and 213(d)(2) each require publication of their 2027 amounts on or before November 1.

The 2027 Figures

The table below pairs each 2027 amount with the 2026 amount only where the notice itself states the 2026 figure, either directly or as the current amount in the floor comparison each formula runs.

The representative payee fee is the lesser of 10 percent of the monthly benefit involved or the dollar limit shown, so on a small benefit the 10 percent limb binds first. The assessment on direct payment of representative and court-awarded fees works the same way: the lesser of 6.3 percent of the authorized fee or $128. The notice also sets the national average wage index for 2025 at $72,800.33, about 4.23 percent above the 2024 index of $69,846.57; those two indices, not 2026 and 2027 amounts, are what the wage-indexed formulas above run on.

Several 2027 amounts have no 2026 counterpart in the notice, so they appear here on their own. The primary insurance amount bend points for workers first eligible in 2027 are $1,340 and $8,077, which makes the 2027 PIA formula 90 percent of the first $1,340 of average indexed monthly earnings, plus 32 percent of the amount between $1,340 and $8,077, plus 15 percent of the amount above $8,077. The family maximum bend points are $1,712, $2,471 and $3,223. The title VIII special benefit for certain World War II veterans residing outside the United States is $771.75, which section 805 of the Act sets at 75 percent of the SSI individual rate. The assessment SSA charges when it pays representative or court-awarded fees directly out of past due benefits is capped at $128 beginning December 2026. The domestic employee coverage threshold is $3,100 and the election official and election worker threshold is $2,700.

The notice also carries the revised special minimum benefit table for December 2026, which runs from a $55.40 primary insurance amount at 11 years of coverage to $1,164.10 at 30 years, with family maximums from $84.80 to $1,748.30.

What the Law Actually Says

How the 3.6 percent was computed

Section 215(i) of the Act, codified at 42 U.S.C. 415(i), defines the mechanism. A base quarter is the calendar quarter ending September 30 in each year after 1982, or any other quarter in which a general benefit increase takes effect. The CPI increase percentage is the percentage, rounded to the nearest one-tenth of 1 percent, by which the Consumer Price Index for that quarter exceeds the index for the most recent prior cost-of-living computation quarter. The statute does not name a particular index, and the notice explains why SSA uses the CPI for Urban Wage Earners and Clerical Workers: when Congress added automatic increases starting in 1975, only one CPI existed, and SSA follows that precedent.

The notice shows its work. The CPI for the quarter ending September 30, 2025 was 316.349 in July, 317.306 in August and 318.139 in September, an arithmetic mean of 317.265. For the quarter ending September 30, 2026 the figures were 327.104, 328.481 and 330.654, a mean of 328.746. SSA rounds each mean to the nearest 0.001 under its regulation at 20 CFR 404.275. The second mean exceeds the first by 3.6 percent after rounding to the nearest 0.1.

Section 215(i) contains a brake that did not engage this year. If the OASDI fund ratio for the year falls below 20.0 percent, the benefit increase is limited to the increase in the national average wage index. The notice reports a 2026 fund ratio of 151.3 percent, computed as $2,561,306 million in combined OASI and DI reserves against $1,693,169 million in estimated cost, so no limit applied.

Why most thresholds rose by more than 3.6 percent

The COLA sets benefit levels. It does not set most of the dollar thresholds around them. Those track wages instead, through the national average wage index that the same notice establishes.

42 U.S.C. 430 sets the contribution and benefit base as the larger of the current base or the 1994 base of $60,600 multiplied by the ratio of the 2025 wage index to the 1992 index of $22,935.42. The notice runs that multiplication and gets $192,353.14, rounds to $192,300, and confirms that this exceeds the current $184,500 base.

42 U.S.C. 403(f)(8) does the same for the retirement earnings test, using a 1994 anchor of $670 for the lower amount and a 2002 anchor of $2,500 for the higher one. The ratios produce $2,126.68 and $5,660.14, which round to $2,130 and $5,660. The statute also sets the withholding rates the exempt amounts trigger: $1 in benefits for every $2 of earnings above the annual exempt amount for beneficiaries below normal retirement age, and $1 for every $3 for months before attaining that age in the year it is reached.

The SGA amount for statutorily blind beneficiaries is statutory. Section 223(d)(4)(A), codified at 42 U.S.C. 423(d)(4)(A), ties it to the earnings test exempt amount that would apply to people attaining retirement age if section 102 of the Senior Citizens' Right to Work Act of 1996 had not been enacted. The notice computes $930 times the 1992 wage ratio, gets $2,951.95, and rounds to $2,950.

The non-blind SGA amount and the trial work period threshold are different. Neither is fixed by statute. The notice is explicit that SSA sets them by regulation, at 20 CFR 404.1574 and 416.974 for non-blind SGA and at 20 CFR 404.1592(b) for the trial work period. The non-blind calculation takes the 2000 amount of $700 times the ratio of the 2025 wage index to the 1998 index of $28,861.44, producing $1,765.69, rounded to $1,770. The trial work period takes the 2001 amount of $530 times the ratio to the 1999 index of $30,469.84, producing $1,266.31, rounded to $1,270.

Rounding rules change the answer

Each formula carries its own rounding rule, and they do not all point the same way. The contribution and benefit base and the old-law base round to the nearest multiple of $300, which pulled $192,353.14 down to $192,300 and $142,836.49 down to $142,800. The earnings test, SGA and trial work period amounts round to the nearest $10. The domestic employee threshold rounds to the next lower multiple of $100, which turned $3,147.08 into $3,100, while the election worker threshold rounds to the nearest $100, which turned $2,654.43 into $2,700.

SSI has the rule with the most visible effect. Section 1617 applies the 3.6 percent increase to unrounded annual amounts, so $11,929.46, $17,892.21 and $5,978.41 become $12,358.92, $18,536.33 and $6,193.63. SSA must then round each to the next lower multiple of $12, giving $12,348, $18,528 and $6,192, and divide by 12 to get the monthly $1,029, $1,544 and $516.

Analysis: Why This Matters

The following is analysis from the Recording Law Editorial Team.

The useful thing about this notice is not the headline percentage, which was announced earlier this month. It is that the document shows every derivation, which means the 2027 numbers are now checkable rather than merely reported.

That matters because three separate engines are running inside one notice, and they produce different answers. Benefit levels move with consumer prices through CPI-W. Most thresholds move with wages through the national average wage index, which the notice puts about 4.23 percent higher than the prior year. And two of the numbers that matter most to disability beneficiaries, non-blind SGA and the trial work period, are set by SSA regulation rather than by the Act at all.

The practical consequence is that the COLA cannot be used to derive the thresholds. A reader who hears 3.6 percent and applies it to the 2026 non-blind SGA amount of $1,690 arrives at roughly $1,751. The actual 2027 figure is $1,770. That is a $19 monthly gap in the number that decides whether work counts as substantial gainful activity, and the gap exists because SGA follows wages while the COLA follows prices.

Rounding compounds the point in the other direction. The SSI individual rate went from $994 to $1,029, which works out to about 3.5 percent rather than 3.6, because the next-lower-multiple-of-$12 rule trimmed $10.92 off the annual amount. The published COLA percentage and the published SSI rate are both correct and they are not the same percentage.

There is also a quieter item worth noting. The fund ratio provision in section 215(i) exists to cap benefit increases at wage growth when the trust funds are thin, and it has a 20.0 percent trigger. The notice records a 151.3 percent ratio for 2026, so the provision stayed dormant. It is the kind of determination that gets no attention in a year when it does not bind, and the notice is where the figure is published.

Finally, a scope point that readers conflate every year: this notice governs Social Security and SSI. Veterans compensation is not indexed to it and moves only when Congress passes an annual rate act. H.R. 8552, the Veterans' Compensation Cost-of-Living Adjustment Act of 2026, was introduced April 28, 2026 and its last recorded action in the govinfo bill status record is June 30, 2026, when a subcommittee forwarded it to the full House Committee on Veterans' Affairs; the Senate companion, S. 4487, was read twice and referred to committee on May 11, 2026. We cover that separately in our report on what the 3.6 percent figure does and does not do for veterans.

How This Affects You

This section describes who each figure binds in general terms. It is not advice about any particular claim or payment.

Title II beneficiaries. Retirement, survivors and disability insurance benefits increase 3.6 percent for people eligible for December 2026 benefits, and those benefits are payable in January 2027. The notice states that for people first eligible after 2026, the 3.6 percent increase does not apply, because their benefit is computed using the 2027 formula rather than increased from an earlier one.

SSI recipients. The federal benefit rate increase is effective for January 2027, and the notice states that the January 2027 payment is paid on December 31, 2026. State supplements are set by states and are outside this notice.

People with a determined disability who work. The 2027 non-blind SGA figure of $1,770 a month applies to people with a determined disability under titles II and XVI. The $2,950 figure for statutorily blind people is a title II amount. Each is the monthly earnings level at which work is ordinarily considered substantial gainful activity. Separately, for a beneficiary receiving Social Security disability benefits under title II, any month in 2027 with earnings over $1,270 counts as a month of services in a trial work period, which runs nine months within a rolling 60-month window. Our running reference on SSI and SSDI dollar amounts tracks these figures alongside the state-level rules collected in the state by state disability guide.

Beneficiaries under normal retirement age who earn wages. The earnings test keys to an annual exempt amount, which the notice states is exactly twelve times the monthly figure. For beneficiaries who reach normal retirement age after 2027 the monthly amount is $2,130 and the annual amount is $25,560, and SSA withholds $1 in benefits for every $2 of earnings above it. For those who reach that age during 2027 the monthly amount is $5,660 and the annual amount is $67,920, counting only earnings in months before attainment, and SSA withholds $1 for every $3 above it. Normal retirement age is 66 for people born between 1943 and 1954 and rises gradually to 67 for those born in 1960 or later.

Workers and employers. OASDI taxes apply to the first $192,300 of remuneration paid in 2027 and of self-employment income in tax years beginning in 2027. Workers earn one quarter of coverage for each $1,970 of covered earnings in 2027, to a maximum of four. For background on how the annual adjustment is set and announced, see how the Social Security COLA is calculated.

This is general legal information, not legal advice. It covers United States federal law under titles II, VIII and XVI of the Social Security Act and reflects the public inspection copy of FR Doc. 2026-21796 as verified on October 24, 2026. Figures published on public inspection are the text as filed, and benefit determinations depend on individual records. Consult a lawyer or an accredited representative licensed in your jurisdiction about your specific situation, or contact SSA directly about your own claim.

Related articles

• How the Social Security COLA is set and announced
• SSI and SSDI dollar amounts for 2027
• Social Security disability rules state by state
• Why the 3.6 percent figure does not move VA rates
• Veterans disability law hub

Last updated: 2026-10-24. This is a developing story; details verified as of 2026-10-24.

Frequently Asked Questions

When does the 3.6 percent increase show up in a Social Security payment?

The notice states the increase applies to title II benefits for individuals eligible for December 2026 benefits, which are payable in January 2027 and thereafter. For SSI, the notice states the increase is effective for payments made for January 2027, which are paid on December 31, 2026.

Is the 2027 determinations notice final, and how should it be cited?

SSA filed it with the Office of the Federal Register on October 23, 2026 as FR Doc. 2026-21796, and it is on public inspection. It is scheduled for publication on October 26, 2026 and will carry the citation 91 FR 67380, pages 67380 to 67385, under Docket No. SSA-2026-1024.

What is substantial gainful activity for 2027?

The notice sets SGA at $1,770 a month for non-blind people with a determined disability under titles II and XVI, and $2,950 a month for statutorily blind people under title II. The blind amount comes from section 223(d)(4)(A) of the Act; the non-blind amount comes from SSA regulations at 20 CFR 404.1574 and 416.974.

Why did the SSI rate rise about 3.5 percent when the COLA is 3.6 percent?

Section 1617 applies the increase to unrounded annual amounts and then rounds down. The notice shows the individual annual amount rising from $11,929.46 to $12,358.92, then rounding to the next lower multiple of $12, which is $12,348, or $1,029 a month. The $10.92 trimmed by rounding is why the monthly figure lands slightly under a straight 3.6 percent.

What is the Social Security taxable maximum for 2027?

The OASDI contribution and benefit base is $192,300 for remuneration paid in 2027 and self-employment income earned in tax years beginning in 2027, up from $184,500. The notice derives it by multiplying the 1994 base of $60,600 by the ratio of the 2025 wage index to the 1992 index, producing $192,353.14, then rounding to the nearest multiple of $300.

How much can someone under full retirement age earn in 2027 before benefits are withheld?

For beneficiaries who reach normal retirement age after 2027 the monthly exempt amount is $2,130 and the annual exempt amount is $25,560, and SSA withholds $1 in benefits for every $2 of earnings above the annual amount. For those who reach that age during 2027 the figures are $5,660 a month and $67,920 for the year, counting only earnings in months before attainment, and SSA withholds $1 for every $3 above the annual amount.

What counts as a trial work period month in 2027?

Any month in which earnings exceed $1,270. The trial work period runs nine months within a rolling 60-month period. SSA sets the threshold by regulation at 20 CFR 404.1592(b) rather than by statute, and the notice derives the 2027 figure from the 2001 amount of $530 adjusted by the wage index.

Does this notice raise VA disability compensation?

No. VA compensation rates are not indexed to the Social Security COLA and change only when Congress enacts an annual rate act. As of the latest govinfo bill status record, H.R. 8552 had advanced no further than a June 30, 2026 subcommittee referral to the full House Committee on Veterans' Affairs. See our [2027 VA disability rate reference and 2026 pay chart](/us-laws/veterans-disability/va-disability-rates-2027/) for the detail.