For Social Security beneficiaries, the big day is just three weeks away. On Oct. 11, 2018, the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) will release its September 2018 inflation data, and with that release, the Social Security Administration will announce the program's 2019 cost-of-living adjustment, or COLA. Think of COLA as the "raise" that recipients are given most years that takes into account the inflation they've faced.Since 1975, the measure that tracks the changing price of a predetermined basket of goods and services for Social Security has been the Consumer Price Index for Urban Wage Earners and Clerical Workers (CPI-W).