Retired and Disabled Veterans Are Due for a Record Raise in 2022

 

In 2022, monthly checks for disabled veterans and military retirees will see the largest increase since 1983. Those receiving checks could see their monthly payments jump by hundreds of dollars each month.

This drastic change is primarily due to COLA, or the Cost-of-Living Adjustment, which is based on annual inflation and aims to maintain the spending power of each payment doled out by the program. All the current figures point to an increase of at least 6%, potentially more, in 2022.

The average check will increase by approximately $160. Those disabled veterans receiving disability payments from the Department of Veterans Affairs will also see increases, with the average monthly payment amount going up by $100. The VA has stated that approximately 5.1 million veterans receive disability compensation, with an average annual benefit of $18.549.

The Department of Labor is responsible for determining the Cost-of-Living Adjustments based on the Consumer Price Index. This index uses the costs of a select group of goods and services and compares that to costs during the previous year. This difference shows how much general prices have gone up over the year. Government benefits react to price growth so that beneficiaries can maintain their current standards of living. If prices go down year-over-year, the government payments will remain the same.  

In 2021, there was rapid cost growth for most goods and services. The Department of Labor has pegged this at a 5.4% increase. Yet, there is still one more month left to the fiscal year, which ends on September 30^th. If September does not show a reversal in the trajectory of cost growth, the 6% increase in benefits payments is likely.