A more generous COLA formula is crucial to keeping millions of seniors from slipping into poverty. Fully 40% of America’s seniors depend on Social Security for virtually all their income.
See more posts like this on Tumblr
#politics #COLA #social security #social insurance #p2 #elderly #older americans #seniors #retirement #retirees #retirement crisis #entitlements #entitlement reform #cost of living adjustment #congressMore you might like
In an online survey by the National Academy of Social Insurance, 64% of respondents favored an increased COLA ‘to more fully protect seniors against inflation.’ In fact, majority support for a COLA boost cut across income groups, age brackets, and party affiliations.
But they also call for switching COLAs to the Consumer Price Index for the Elderly or CPI-E, designed by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. The CPI-E would boost Social Security payments without worsening the system’s deficit.
via The Social Security Fix That Could Help the Poorest Retirees.
Related Reading:
Why Seniors Need a CPI-E.
But if the CPI-E determined the Social Security COLA, the expected average COLA would increase about 0.2 percentage points per year.
Last week’s announcement that there will be a tiny .3% Social Security
COLA increase next year means that 40 million seniors who rely on their
Social Security to get by will once again find their expenses outpacing
their Social Security benefit.
According to the National Committee to Preserve Social Security and Medicare (NCPSSM), the upcoming COLA change will give a whopping $24 per month increase for the average beneficiary. With Medicare Part B premiums expected to rise around $8 next year, the net cost-of-living adjustment for most seniors will be only $16 per month. The new COLA brings the average monthly retirement benefit up to $1,503 — it’s just a $288 yearly raise for seniors living on fixed incomes.
NCPSSM notes that roughly half of America’s seniors rely on Social Security for at least 50 percent of their income, and 1 in 4 depending on the program for at least 90 percent of their income, the 2020 COLA increase does not go very far in helping these recipients pay their bills. A $16 per month probably won’t cover typical expenses, such as the cost of a single prescription copay, a month’s medical supplies, or transportation to a doctor’s appointment, adds the Washington, DC- advocacy group whose goal is to protect Social Security and Medicare.
via Herb Weiss.
Related Reading:
2020 Social Security COLA Scant Relief for Seniors.
The scant 1.6% Social Security cost-of-living adjustment (COLA) for 2020 is another big disappointment for America’s seniors. The paltry new COLA will yield a $24 per month increase for the average beneficiary. With Medicare Part B premiums predicted to rise by about $8 next year, the net cost-of-living adjustment for most seniors will be only $16 per month.
If the CPI-E were adopted, beneficiaries would see a 6% overall increase in benefits over 20 years compared to the current formula, which yielded a zero cost-of-living adjustment three times during the past decade — and a mere 0.3% in 2017.
News that seniors should prepare for no increase (or a very small increase) for the second year in a row and the fourth time since 2010 has many understandably worried.
Read more here.
Instead they want to tie benefits to the consumer price index for the elderly, or CPI-E, an experimental index that gives more weight to the health care and housing costs that typically account for a larger share of older Americans’ budgets. The CPI-E also puts less value on transportation costs, since seniors are less likely to have to commute to jobs.
After years of Republican-led debate over how to pare back Social Security’s rising costs, Democrats are flipping the script with an ambitious plan to expand the New Deal-era social insurance program while making gradual changes to keep it solvent for the rest of the century.
The Social Security 2100 Act, which was introduced this past week in the House and the Senate, represents a sea change after decades dominated by concern that aging baby boomers would bankrupt the government as they begin drawing benefits from Social Security and other entitlement programs.
via New York Times.
Related Reading:
A bill to boost Social Security will finally get a full and fair hearing.
Boosting — rather than cutting — Social Security makes good financial sense. The program provides more than one trillion dollars in fiscal stimulus to the nation’s economy, as seniors, workers with disabilities and survivors spend their benefits on goods and services in all fifty states.
Rep. Larson’s bill is a resounding rebuke to conservative proposals, because it maintains Social Security’s financial solvency for generations while giving seniors a bump in benefits. Among other things, the bill would:
- Provide a 2% benefit bump for all beneficiaries.
- Protect retirees against inflation with a new formula for calculating cost-of-living adjustments, the Consumer Price Index for the Elderly (CPI-E).
- Increase the special minimum benefit threshold so that more low-wage workers qualify.
- Cut taxes for over 12 million Social Security beneficiaries.
We should move to a COLA formula that takes a more accurate measure of seniors’ expenses, which is a CPI for the elderly.
via Entitled to Know.
For years, seniors have told us that they need their Social Security benefits boosted. They want fairer cost-of-living adjustments (COLAs) that reflect retirees’ true living expenses. They say it’s time for the wealthy to start paying their fair share in Social Security payroll contributions. Congressman John Larson’s Social Security 2100 Act would achieve all of that – and more.
The bill would keep the system solvent for nearly the rest of this century while modestly boosting benefits – and cutting taxes for retirees. Not only do seniors and advocates support this bill, the American public has affirmed the proposals that it embodies in poll after poll, across party lines and age groups.
Read more from this blog post by clicking here.
Seniors rely on the mail for everything from bill paying to collecting #SocialSecurity benefits. We must #SaveTheUSPS! https://www.cbsnews.com/news/postal-service-louis-dejoy-delivery-10-year-plan/