WASHINGTON -- More than 56 million Social Security recipients will see their monthly payments increase by 1.7 percent in January.

The increase was announced Tuesday when the Social Security Administration released a key measure of inflation, which determines whether people who receive Social Security get a cost-of-living adjustment, or COLA.

About 8 million people who receive Supplemental Security Income will also receive the 1.7 percent COLA, meaning the announcement will affect about one in five U.S. residents.

The increase is among the lowest since automatic annual adjustments were adopted in 1975. It reflects relatively low inflation over the past year. This year's increase was 3.6 percent.

Social Security payments for retired workers average $1,237 a month, or about $14,800 a year.  For them, the monthly increase in their checks will amount to about $21.00.

At the Salvation Army Senior Center in Syracuse,  the reaction was mixed.  Raymond Cooks told CNY Central's Jim Kenyon,  "Thank God me and my wife finally got the house paid off...it helps us out.  It's fine."

Wilmont Mays sees the small increase as an insult. "We look like we're being put aside, pushed under the rug.  It's not appropriate.  We should be respected and we're not being respected," says Mays.

Amelia Russell feels 1.7 percent does not reflect the cost of living, especially for seniors who pay more for health care.  "My medicide co-pays are over $110 a month.  That takes a hunk out of my check and that doesn't include household bills.  So I don't know how they think that little increase will help," says Russell.

(Information from the Associated Press was used in this report.)