Cost-of-Living Adjustment
The annual increase applied to Social Security benefits, based on the change in the CPI-W price index from the third quarter of one year to the third quarter of the next.
COLAs take effect with the December benefit, paid in January. They apply from the year you turn 62 whether or not you have claimed, so delaying a claim does not forfeit them.
Many pensions have no COLA or a partial one. In RetIQ each pension carries its own COLA rate, while Social Security follows the plan's inflation assumption.