Join us at 1pm EDT for Behind the Headlines as we discuss:
- Trump administration proposes Chained CPI.
- Prescription Drug TV ads.
See more posts like this on Tumblr
#politics #trump #donald trump #health care #white house #news #social security #chained cpi #earned benefits #COLA #cost of living adjustment #retirement #retirees #retirement crisis #seniorsMore you might like
The Social Security Administration announced today that more than 67 million recipients will get a 2.8% cost-of-living adjustment (COLA) in 2019.
Senior advocates, including the National Committee to Preserve Social Security and Medicare, see the COLA increase as good news but say it could be improved by adopting the Consumer Price Index for the Elderly, which is based on retirees’ actual spending habits rather than those of the general population.
via Forbes.
Related Reading:
Social Security COLAs to Rise; Formula Needs Improvement.
This COLA is good news for seniors living on fixed incomes. Every extra dollar helps. But the current COLA formula (the CPI-W) is inadequate because it does not account for seniors’ rising expenses – especially housing and health care.
A strong case can be made that the current formula driving Social Security’s cost-of-living adjustment (COLA) is out of whack. The COLA is tied to the Consumer Price Index for Urban Wage Earners and Clerical Workers (CPI-W), which gauges a market basket of goods and services of working people–who tend to be younger and spend less on healthcare than seniors.
via Morning Star.
Related Reading:
Since 2009, Social Security
beneficiaries have seen a 0% COLA increase three times (2009, 2010,
2016) with an average of just 1.2% increase over those years, confirming
yet again, that the current Social Security COLA formula isn’t
accurately measuring seniors’ expenses.
What’s been hailed as the largest Social Security cost-of-living adjustment (COLA) in five years doesn’t go very far in the real world where retirees live. The 2.0 percent boost in COLAs for 2018 amounts to only $27 a month for the average retiree — barely enough for a prescription co-pay, a tank of gas, or a bag of groceries.
What’s more, average beneficiaries will see their COLAs almost completely wiped out by rising Medicare Part B premiums. Those premiums will likely go up by $25 per month in 2018, making the math pretty simple. Many retirees will net only $2 extra per month, which might buy a cup of coffee but not much else.
More from this article can be found here.
The Social Security Administration announced today that more than 65 million recipients will get a 2% cost-of-living adjustment (COLA) in 2018, after receiving a measly 0.3% boost in 2017 and no increase for inflation in 2016. That means the average benefit for a retired worker will rise by $27 a month to $1,404 in 2018 while the average benefit per retired couple will grow $46 a month to $2,340. But many recipients will find most or all of that increase eaten up by a jump in the Medicare Part B premiums deducted from their monthly Social Security checks.
via Forbes.
Related Reading:
- 2018 Social Security COLA Won’t Meet Seniors’ Needs.
- The 2018 COLA translates into a paltry $27 a month for the average recipient, barely enough for a prescription co-pay, a tank of gas, or a bag of groceries.
According to a new estimate based on the recent Social Security Trustees report, the Cost of Living Adjustment (COLA) for 2020 will be a scant 1.8%. That’s an increase of about $26 in monthly benefits for the average claimant. The same projection says that the Medicare Part B premium will likely rise by $8.80 per month next year. If both estimates prove accurate, the average beneficiary will only receive a net increase of $17.50 per month, which doesn’t buy much these days. As Bernice Napach reports in ThinkAdvisor:
“For recipients collecting $735 or less in benefits, the Medicare Part B premium increase would wipe out their entire COLA. They would have no additional funds to pay for rising costs for health care, housing or other necessities, which is an issue for a growing number of retirees.” – ThinkAdvisor, 5/1/19
Read more from this post by clicking here.
According to a new estimate based on the recent Social Security Trustees report, the Cost of Living Adjustment (COLA) for 2020 will be a scant 1.2%. That’s an increase of about $17.50 in monthly benefits for the average claimant.
The same projection says that the Medicare Part B premium will likely rise by $8.80 per month next year. If both estimates prove accurate, the average beneficiary will only receive a net increase of $8.70 per month, which doesn’t buy much these days.
Read more from our new blog post by clicking here.
Today’s announcement that there will be no Social Security cost-of-living adjustment (COLA) increase next year, for only the third time in 40 years, means that millions of seniors who rely on their Social Security to get by will once again find their expenses outpacing their Social Security benefit.
via Entitled to Know.
A truly bad idea is back again. The Trump administration wants to apply the Chained CPI to federal safety net programs. The government currently uses another measure, the CPI-U (Consumer Price Index for Urban consumers) to calculate inflationary increases in the federal poverty level. Replacing the CPI-U with the Chained CPI would underestimate the impact of inflation on workers’ wages, keeping the federal poverty level artificially low.
Millions of Americans would lose benefits like food stamps, Medicaid and Affordable Care Act subsidies as real inflation pushed their incomes above the lower poverty line based on the Chained CPI.
Read more from our newest op-ed by clicking here.
Millions of seniors will soon be notified that Medicare premiums for physicians’ services are rising and likely to consume most of the cost-of-living adjustment they’ll receive next year from Social Security.
Higher 2018 premiums for Medicare Part B will hit older adults who’ve been shielded from significant cost increases for several years, including large numbers of low-income individuals who struggle to make ends meet.
via Kaiser Health News.
2018 Social Security COLA Won’t Meet Seniors’ Needs.
- The 2018 COLA translates into a paltry $27 a month for the average recipient, barely enough for a prescription co-pay, a tank of gas, or a bag of groceries.
2018 cost of living adjustment shortchanges America’s retirees.
- What’s more, average beneficiaries will see their COLAs almost completely wiped out by rising Medicare Part B premiums. Those premiums will likely go up by $25 per month in 2018, making the math pretty simple. Many retirees will net only $2 extra per month, which might buy a cup of coffee but not much else.
Senator Romney’s legislation has no provisions to ensure that future #seniors’ earned benefits are adequate for the expenses they will face. #TRUSTact @RepJohnLarson https://www.ncpssm.org/entitledtoknow/romneys-trust-act-is-back-again/