When the Social Security Administration announced in October that benefits would be rising by just 2.5% in the new year, many seniors were disappointed but not particularly shocked. For months, experts had been projecting that 2025's Social Security cost-of-living adjustment (COLA) would land somewhere in that ballpark.

Now, with the year winding down, all Social Security retirees should mark Nov. 20 as another date to remember. Here's why.

Due to how the Social Security Administration schedules payments to beneficiaries, some will receive theirs with the 2025 COLA increase in December.

The most direct and obvious effect of the new COLA is the increase in monthly benefits. If your monthly Social Security benefit is $1,000 this year, it will be $1,025 starting in January 2025. If it's $2,000 now, it'll be $2,050.

But unfortunately, next year's COLA won't be quite as substantial. Because of cooling inflation, Social Security benefits are only going to receive a 2.5% raise in 2025.

Still, the recent news raises a handful of questions among the retirees it impacts the most. Here are a few things you might want to know about these annual cost-of-living adjustments. The annual COLA isn't a number arbitrarily decided by the Social Security Administration.

Social Security benefits will arguably lose buying power next year because the 2.5% COLA understates inflation.