20 CFR § 404.271 - When automatic cost-of-living increases apply.

---
identifier: "/us/cfr/t20/s404.271"
source: "ecfr"
legal_status: "authoritative_unofficial"
title: "20 CFR § 404.271 - When automatic cost-of-living increases apply."
title_number: 20
title_name: "Employees' Benefits"
section_number: "404.271"
section_name: "When automatic cost-of-living increases apply."
chapter_name: "SOCIAL SECURITY ADMINISTRATION"
part_number: "404"
part_name: "FEDERAL OLD-AGE, SURVIVORS AND DISABILITY INSURANCE (1950-  )"
positive_law: false
currency: "2026-03-24"
last_updated: "2026-03-24"
format_version: "1.1.0"
generator: "[email protected]"
cfr_part: "404"
---


# 404.271 When automatic cost-of-living increases apply.

Besides increases in the primary insurance amounts of current beneficiaries, automatic cost-of-living increases also apply to—

(a) The special minimum primary insurance amounts (described in §§ 404.260 through 404.261) of current and future beneficiaries;

(b) The primary insurance amounts of people who after 1978 become eligible for benefits or die before becoming eligible (beginning with December of the year they become eligible or die), although certain limitations are placed on the automatic adjustment of the frozen minimum primary insurance amount (as described in § 404.277); and

(c) The *maximum family benefit amounts* in column V of the benefit table in appendix III.

[47 FR 30734, July 15, 1982, as amended at 51 FR 12603, Apr. 14, 1986; 83 FR 21708, May 10, 2018]