Does Social Security spousal benefit calculation include 2025 COLA increase in husband's PIA?

Your spousal benefit will be based on your husband's PIA including all COLA adjustments that have been applied since he reached his FRA. So yes, you would include the 2022, 2023, and 2024 COLAs that have already been applied to his PIA. However, the 2025 COLA won't be reflected in the current online calculators yet because it only gets officially applied to benefits starting in January 2025. The online calculators typically update after the COLA is officially implemented. Just to be clear - your spousal benefit will be calculated as up to 50% of his COLA-adjusted PIA, then reduced if you claim before your FRA. The reduction is approximately 0.69% per month before your FRA (about 8.3% per year).

im in kinda same boat, my wife been getting SS since 2019 and when i called to ask about spousal they gave me a number that seemed WAY too low!! turns out they were using her original PIA not the one with all the COLAs added. had to call back THREE TIMES to get someone who knew what they were talking about!!! the online calculators are useless for this stuff honestly

Yes, your spousal benefit will be based on your husband's PIA including all COLAs that have been applied since he reached FRA. The PIA is adjusted each year with COLAs. To calculate your benefit: 1. Start with husband's PIA at his FRA 2. Add all COLAs since then (2022, 2023, 2024) 3. Calculate 50% of that amount 4. Apply early retirement reduction if claiming before your FRA The 2025 COLA (2.5%) won't be in current calculations but will automatically be added to benefits starting January 2025. For the most accurate calculation, I recommend calling SSA directly and asking specifically for your husband's current PIA with all COLAs applied. Then you'll have the exact figure to work with. Alternatively, check his my Social Security account - it may show the current PIA there.

I had this exact same problem last year! Kept getting disconnected when calling SSA. Finally I found this service called Claimyr that got me through to a real person at Social Security in about 20 minutes instead of waiting on hold for hours. They connected me directly to SSA where I got the PIA with all COLAs included. Their website is claimyr.com and they have a video showing how it works: https://youtu.be/Z-BRbJw3puU Once I got through, I found out that yes, the spousal benefit is based on the PIA with all COLAs applied since FRA. The rep explained that the COLA adjustments compound each year, which makes a significant difference over time.

My wife just went through this. It's SO confusing! The SSA rep told her that spousal benefits are based on the CURRENT PIA, which includes all prior COLAs. But the online calculators don't make this clear at all! One thing to keep in mind - when you start receiving benefits, you'll get the COLAs automatically each year. So you don't need to worry about adding the 2025 COLA yourself.

DONT TRUST WHAT SSA TELLS YOU OVER THE PHONE!!! I was given WRONG info 3 different times about my spousal benefit. One rep told me COLAs weren't included, another said they were, and a third gave me a completely different amount. I finally went IN PERSON to my local office and got the correct information. Their phone reps are badly trained.

I want to add one more important clarification: When we talk about COLAs being applied to the PIA, we're talking about the spouse's (your husband's) PIA being adjusted for inflation over time. The actual spousal benefit calculation takes this inflation-adjusted PIA, calculates the spousal percentage (up to 50%), and then applies any reduction factors for early claiming. This is why it's crucial to get the current PIA figure from SSA - it already has all past COLAs built in. Once you start receiving benefits, you'll automatically get future COLAs applied to your monthly payment.

My mother just went through this process! One thing that helped was printing out her husband's benefit verification letter from his my Social Security account. It didn't specifically show the current PIA, but when she took it to her appointment, the SSA rep was able to look up the current PIA with all COLAs applied. That might be easier than trying to calculate it yourself.