At its September meeting, the Board unanimously voted to approve a 2.5% cost-of-living adjustment (COLA) increase for eligible benefit recipients in 2025.

By statute, SERS’ COLA is based on the year-to-year change in the Consumer Price Index (June 2023 to June 2024) for Urban Wage Earners (CPI-W), with a floor of 0% and a cap of 2.5%.

This year’s CPI-W was 2.9%. With input from SERS’ actuary, Cavanaugh MacDonald, the Board approved the statutory maximum of 2.5%. According to Cavanaugh Macdonald, the 2.5% COLA amount will not materially impair SERS’ funded status.

The 2025 COLA takes effect on the benefit anniversary of the recipient’s effective date of retirement.

Benefit recipients whose benefit effective date is on or after April 1, 2018, must wait until the fourth anniversary of their allowance or benefit before receiving a COLA.

After more than two years of analysis and discussion, at the October 2023 meeting, the SERS Board approved the ‘factor’ that will be used under the Contribution Based Benefit Cap (CBBC) analysis for retirements with an effective date on or after August 1, 2024.

The factor approved by the Board is 6.25.

The purpose of the CBBC analysis is to assure that the pension benefit is sufficiently supported by the contributions made by a member over the course of their working career. The CBBC factor is the multiplier for an annuity based on the member’s contributions that will be compared to the standard formula benefit.

The Board considered extensive data in determining that the factor will be 6.25, including analysis of actual retirements from 2020 to 2021 and 2022 to 2023. The analysis showed that, in the vast majority of cases, the standard formula benefit will continue to be the basis of the retirement allowance. For example, of the nearly 3,000 retirements in the 2022 to 2023 time period, a CBBC with a factor of 6.25 would have impacted only eight retirements.

For more information, as well as the materials reviewed by the Board in making this decision, visit the CBBC Explained and Sustainability pages on the SERS website.

Medicare has announced the standard monthly premium for Medicare Part B enrollees will be $174.70 in 2024, an increase of $9.80 from $164.90 in 2023.

According to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, the increase is mainly due to projected increases in health care spending.

Most Americans’ Part B premium is automatically deducted from their monthly Social Security benefit. If you pay using Social Security’s Easy Pay program, your payment will be automatically adjusted.

However, if you pay your premium from your checking or savings account using an online banking service, you will need to adjust your payment amount to $174.70 before the January payment.

If you have questions, please call Social Security, which handles Medicare’s billing, at 1-800-722-1213.

At its September meeting, the Board unanimously voted to approve a 2.5% cost-of-living adjustment (COLA) increase for eligible benefit recipients in 2024.

By statute, SERS’ COLA is based on the year-to-year change in the Consumer Price Index (June 2022 to June 2023) for Urban Wage Earners (CPI-W), with a floor of 0% and a cap of 2.5%.

This year’s CPI-W was 2.3%. With input from SERS’ actuary, Cavanaugh MacDonald, the Board approved the statutory maximum of 2.5%. According to Cavanaugh Macdonald, the higher COLA amount will not materially impair SERS’ funded status.

The 2024 COLA takes effect on the benefit anniversary of the recipient’s effective date of retirement.

Benefit recipients whose benefit effective date is on or after April 1, 2018, must wait until the fourth anniversary of their allowance or benefit before receiving a COLA.