20 CFR 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.