Fedweek

cola federal retirement april 2020 Image: Gorodenkoff/Shutterstock.com

Halfway through the counting period toward the January 2021 federal retiree COLA, the count stands at 0.5 percent, following a decrease of 0.2 percentage points in March in the inflation index used to set the adjustment.

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.

Fact or Fiction: Full COLAs for Everyone, All the Time

More on COLAs – Federal Cost of Living Adjustments at ask.FEDweek.com

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FERS Retirement Guide 2022