VA 2025 Cost of Living Adjustment Update: What Veterans Need to Know

Introduction hello and welcome back to my channel my name is Dwayne I got a video for that Kimble United States Army veteran and retired VA rating specialist in today's Overview of 2025 Cost of Living Adjustment (COLA) video I am going to be discussing the 2025 cost of living adjustment also known as Cola so make sure you stick around okay the 2025 cost of cost of living adjustment also known as Cola I found the website that provided some insight on the upcoming 2025 Cola which I think uh little bit interesting but keep in mind folks I do not want you to take your eye off the prize by worrying yourself about the 2025 Cola uh Cola allowance when you Importance of Staying Focused can't get to 10% when you can't get to 20 or even 30% to add your dependence do not take your eye off the price I'm just showing you what I found um on the internet for those of you that are curious so let me go ahead and share my screen oh wait a minute I'm sorry okay here we go so this is social securities 2025 cost living adjustment Cola forecast has changed but a history making raise is still probable not the raise that we got for 2023 that was eight I think it was 88.7% that's not what they're talking about okay trust me you probably see more YouTube videos uh about it uh if it was okay so it says Social Security cost living adjustment is on the verge of doing something that hasn't happened in roughly three decades but it likely won't help retire e okay everything is going up everything is going up except pay all right I don't know if we will ever see 8.7 increase in our lifetime like we uh previously did okay so it says in June Social Security more than 5 51.1 million retired worker benefici beneficiaries took home an average check of was that 1.9 million which works out Insights on Social Security COLA to a little over 23,000 on an annual basis okay so one thing to keep in mind the VA doesn't post their uh Cola until Social Security everybody goes off of what Social Security is going to give okay there's that young fellow holding some cash all right uh it talks about what is social security what is uh Social Security Cola and why is it important now they get the numbers from the previous year and that calculation will determine the percentage for the upcoming year cost of living allowance Understanding VA COLA Timing also keep in mind when we are paid for compensation on the first of the month it is for the previous month okay and once it goes through the government everybody signs off it will going to affect December 1st if in fact they decide to increase okay give us a cost living increase okay let's keep going I'm not going to for you all with a lot of these um paragraphs they have but what I'm going to do make sure you click the link in the I'mma put this link in the description section so make sure you go down and you click on the link and you can come back and read this article uh one two three four times or whatever okay so here it just gives us inflation rate okay from what is it well before the 1980s all way up to 2020 up to 2020 okay so look at 1980 it was really high and then in what is that 2022 maybe it Peak maybe 2023 it peaked up there okay the eight eight got up to eight point something percent all right all right cost living adjustment forecast have shifted but it's still on Pace to make history so what they're talking about look at this second paragraph here however the LA the last three cost living adjustments have bucked this trend 22 2023 and 2024 5.9 8.7 3.2% two 3.2% now if you look at the uh paragraph just above that and it gives the numbers uh it says the average Cola over the last 20 years is 2.6% okay um no Cola was passed along in 2010 2011 2016 I didn't even notice it because I really wasn't paying attention to it okay in those years 20 2011 2016 now I can't remember remember vaguely in 20101 there was some Rumblings within the VA amongst VA employees like oh they're not gonna give a cost living allowance this year and I just never paid attention to it okay um it really caught my attention the 88.7% that's when I really start to pay attention to it because here's why I don't want you to lose focus on this cost of living allowance do should you know what it is how it's calculated yeah but if you're trying to go through the VA compensation uh claims process under VBA this shouldn't be your main focus read it understand it okay I get it but this is not going to help you get to 10% 20% or even 30% okay but you still need to understand what it is and excuse me how it's calculated all right that's just my opinion leave me a comment and let me know what you think about the cola all right so right here these Current Trends in COLA numbers is from this year January 2024 you see 1.4% February April May June July in June it kind of dipped a little bit okay but look at the jump between February and April okay it jumped up there but now it's back at 2.63% in October they're going to come out with that number when they do I'll do another video and update you all on what that is Key Takeaway okay so number one takeaway don't let this distract you from your goal of getting your service connection okay whether you're trying to get to 10% or 100% do I think that you need to know how it's calculated what it is uh when they're going to present it to everybody and when it goes in effect yeah okay but that's it you got it move back to the claim that's the prize okay so don't get too caught up in it but I just want to share that because I've been getting some questions about it again I'll put this link in the description section and you can go back and continue to do your research so that Closing Remarks being said make sure you like subscribe hit that notification button and as always share this video with your fellow veterans thank you