Fedweek

Halfway through the count toward the January 2019 federal retirement COLA, the count stands at 1.6 percent, following an increase of 0.2 percentage points in March in the inflation index used to set the adjustment.

More on COLAs at ask.FEDweek.com

Cost-of-living-adjustments (COLAs) are effective on December 1 of each year and are applied to the annuity payments made the following month. COLAs for those retired less than one year are prorated according to the date on which they retired. If you retire in January, your first adjustment will be made in January of the following year and will be for 11/12ths of the COLA amount. If you retire in February it will be 10/12ths, and so forth. Future COLAs will be for the full amount.