Millions of Social Security recipients and federal retirees will get only tiny increases in benefits next year, the fifth year in a row that older Americans will have to settle for historically low raises.
There was no increase this year. Next year’s benefit hike will be small because inflation is low, driven in part by lower fuel prices. The COLA affects more than 70 million people — about one in five Americans.
The federal government is scheduled to announce the cost-of-living adjustment, or COLA, Tuesday morning. By law, the COLA is based on a government measure of consumer prices. Preliminary numbers suggest a COLA of less than 1 percent, according to analyses by experts and The Associated Press.
The average monthly Social Security payment is $1,238. That adds up to a monthly increase of maybe $3 or $4 a month.
More bad news: Medicare Part B premiums, which are usually deducted from Social Security payments, are expected to increase next year to the point in which they will probably wipe out the entire COLA.
By law, the dollar increase in Medicare’s Part B premium cannot exceed a beneficiary’s cost-of-living raise. That’s known as the “hold harmless” provision, and it protects the majority of Medicare recipients, who have their premiums deducted from their Social Security checks.
But another federal law says that the Part B premium must raise enough money to cover one-fourth of expected spending on doctors’ services. That means that a minority of beneficiaries, including new enrollees and higher-income people, have to shoulder the full increase. Their premiums would jump.
Millicent Graves, a retired veterinary technician, says Medicare and supplemental insurance premiums eat up nearly a third of her $929 monthly Social Security payment. And don’t tell the 72-year-old from Williamsburg, Virginia, that consumer prices aren’t going up. She says her insurance premiums went up by $46.50 this year, and her cable TV, Internet and phone bill went up, too.
“I just lose and lose and lose and lose,” Graves said.
More than 60 million retirees, disabled workers, spouses and children get Social Security benefits. The COLA also affects benefits for about 4 million disabled veterans, 2.5 million federal retirees and their survivors, and more than 8 million people who get Supplemental Security Income, the disability program for the poor. Many people who get SSI also receive Social Security.
Since 2008, the COLA has been above 2 percent only once, in 2011. It’s been zero three times.
“This loss of anticipated retirement income compounds every year, causing people to spend through retirement savings far more quickly than planned,” said Mary Johnson of the Senior Citizens League. “Over the course of a 25- or 30-year retirement, it reduces anticipated Social Security income by tens of thousands of dollars.”
By law, the cost-of-living adjustment is based on the Consumer Price Index for Urban Wage Earners and Clerical Workers, or CPI-W, a broad measure of consumer prices generated by the Bureau of Labor Statistics. It measures price changes for food, housing, clothing, transportation, energy, medical care, recreation and education.
The COLA is calculated using the average CPI-W for July, August and September. If prices go up, benefits go up. If prices drop or stay flat, benefits stay the same.
The numbers for July and August suggest a COLA of just 0.3 percent. The numbers for September are to be released Tuesday.
The Associated Press contributed to this article.
What a joke, politicians who are public servants get great benefits, when they are done in office, but hard working americans, get screwed when they retire.
There should be a constitutional amendment that the public has to vote to confirm any pay raises and other perks that members of Congress enact for themselves. If we’d had that in 1789, a lot of things would be different today.
And if it began to work to reign in the feds, I betcha the states would adopt it too, especially if voters saw it work and badgered the state legislators about it.
Since we didn’t do it in 1789, maybe those states that have initiative laws should start enacting laws to this effect state by state, then it can trickle up instead of down.
Unknown to most Americans, there is a constitutional amendment intended to address this kind of issue. It has been adopted, but in an unusual manner. Further, it is associated with the Bill of Rights.
Contrary to popular knowledge, 12 amendments, not 10, were initially proposed to the constitution to allay fears that the root document lacked protection for fundamental human rights. Only 10 were adopted by a sufficient number of states during the next few years. These first 10 adopted amendments are known as The Bill of Rights.
Unlike more recent amendments, there were no time limits on the adoption of those 12 amendments. In 1992, the required percentage of states ratified it, and it became the 27th (last) amendment. It reads:
No law, varying the compensation for the services of the Senators and Representatives, shall take effect, until an election of Representatives shall have intervened.
Bill
And we old, hard working retirees, had our Social Security amount based on our income, which may have been good for the old days, but is much lower than what average retirees got nowadays. So our checks are lower to begin with.
I would be delighted to get the average SS payments, but I’m sure I am paying the standard Medicare amount.
I understand that they are going to go up on the Medicare premium that they take out of our checks so, we will get $4 raise and we will be paying an additional $129 for a loss of $125 a month. The military and social security raises should be tied to the federal employees….in other words, the federal employees get EXACTLY the same raises that our military and our seniors get. Talk about getting something fixed and quickly…that would do it.
Inflation in grocery, medical, rent, etc. is killing us, but they do not recognize those increases as inflation? Lower gas prices already are over, and seniors drive much less than other citizens. And, what about the millions that Congress stole from the Social Security fund and never replaced? Seniors on Social Security were forced to pay into FICA by law, and have been driven into poverty.
Ron you are a man who speaks the truth here..What is wrong with this picture? Our government is taking full advantage of us to pad their own back pockets.They give themselves of at least a 3% COLA every year while they give us the Senior citizens nothing!! How does that work?If we care to get nothing they should be held to the same. If you pass the laws, then you must abide by the laws, Congress member or not!! Something very important here seems to have been forgotten along the way..elected officials by way of the vote by American citizens, the boss of the elected officials get the shaft by our elected officials while they reap the harvest..We should eliminate our Congress from automatically giving themselves a raise every year on their own demands to cover their so called COLA. How is it that they (Congress members) making over $175,000 a year beginning plus top grade benefits are in need of a COLA and the senior citizens many on a fixed income have not a need for a COLA raise? Every year it becomes more apparent that we the people should demand that our government repay the $2.6 $trillion dollars back to the Social Security Fund that they pilfered over the years to fund other projects to make them look good. Just got done stealing $150 billion from Social Security Fund to give to Iran as ransom money..Let us demand repayment with a reasonable interest rate for the misuse of our Social Security Fund account money. If they borrowed that money from somewhere else they would have to pay it back, our Social Security Fund should be no different!! Our Senior Citizens depend on their S.S.checks every month that are a part of their monthly retirement income that was a mandatory deduction each payday from their earnings and matched by their employers for some over 40 years for their retirement upon retirement age of 62 or older. Now the government wants to act like it is money they are paying out to us when it is not!! It is our money we deposited for our retirement over the years through our payroll deductions.We want our fair share given back to us in return and a decent COLA increase to cover any or all increases a year that we encounter. We shouldn’t be going in the hole further and further year after year and watching our S.S. dollars being eaten up by increases and that the government doesn’t want to recognize as legitimate COLA increases. Our government has been robbing the S.S. Fund blind since it’s inception. Then they wonder why S.S. is almost broke!! It is because of continued government theft from the funds to use elsewhere..Time to make them repay our S.S. Fund so we can continue on paying a fair monthly retirement check to our S.S. recipients.
I agree with everything you wrote.
This crooked government has been cooking the books for decades…both sides of the political parties….putting cash in their own pockets and screwing their employers…the American tax payer.
Hey, your social security increases are going to the Muslim immegrants Obama is bringing in! They gotta have a house, tv, Obama phone, healthcare and food too! You old people gotta suck it up to help pay for our muslim brothers so they can plan jihad and blow up your grandkids!!!! Only gonna get worse when broomhillary is elected.
They are to stupid to see it or think we are to stupid to see it. Where is the money coming from for the 100,000 islamist coming to America?
There is also another deduction from the SS monthly payment. It is based on the income one receives from the ownership of”Tax Free Bonds” In short the government cannot apply income tax to the “Tax Free Bonds”, so they ” “Tax by the back door” using deficiencies in the funding of of medical programs to capture funds from “tax free” earnings. Talk about government duplicity. Incidentally, the bonds are tax free to encourage individuals to support education related funding needs.
Tie congresses pay scale to the same scale as social security and see what happens.
Good idea. See my other idea above. These two ideas could be woven together into an amendment.
Try this kick those greedy €€€€€€€out and elect retires to replace them as most retired after 60 they won’t want too stay in office 50 years !!!!
They should leave our social security alone . We paid for it over the years that we worked . The government used it and didn’t pay it back .
Why should seniors suffer ?
Each year Congress votes themselves a raise of 3% or more even when the cost of living does not increase. Those that were voted in office to serve the American people only serve themselves. All raises to elected officials should be done on the ballet, and okayed by the Voter.
Exactly what I proposed above in my response to Steven. Just as the Senate confirms presidential appointments, the People should get to confirm any pay raises and perks that members of Congress receive.
You can bet that the illegals immigrants and criminals won’t get any cuts in their benefits. Vote that criminal Clinton in and that will mean more illegals coming in to get a share of your shrinking slice of the pie. That should make the idiots voting against Trump feel justified . . . all because me and Trump are the only ones with potty mouths. Lol lol lol. The insecure, insignificant, low self esteem femiNazis want to be allowed to fight in front line combat, but they can’t handle Trump’s language. Better to be grabbed by the P**** than to be governed by one.
LinA, you and Trump are NOT the only potty mouths. The media are so in the tank for Hitlery they are hiding her very foul mouth. Worse yet, Moochelle came out last week and on one hand blasted Trump’s comments and on the other hand, praised Beyonce as a role model for her girls. Meanwhile, Rush Limbaugh published the lyrics to some Beyonce songs, so vile you have to ask whether Mooch really thinks that garbage is good role-modeling for young girls or even suitable for street-dwellers to be listening to.
The left is just as foul-mouthed — and racist (I’m thinking of a particular comment from Hitlery that I can’t print here) — as Trump or anyone on the right and likely very more so. But the media are so complicit they are hiding this from the People.
At the rate things are going Miley , Beyonce will be strutting around naked on stage !!!
I wish the congressmen and senators look into social security benefits. Why is rent increase, food prices increase, medical premiums not considered in cola adjustments? We voters should be given voices on the public officials benefit or salary increase.
How disgraceful! Seniors have worked very hard to keep this nation going for years and now they will be dumped on once again!
Just remember this– everyone gets old, sometimes sick and can’t fend for themselves!
Even the great apes take care of their old! Disgusting humans!
It’s one of the Seven Deadly Sins — greed. Also power.
I worked for Waste Management in Holland, MI in 1994. One morning while heading back to the office after meeting with clients I was involved in a hit and run accident that changed my life. Instead of WM taking care of me for the rest of my life (long story) I was placed on SS and disability. I am 59 now and I receive a total YEARLY INCOME of roughly $7,500.00!!! I was a stay at home Mom for years and worked several cash jobs so I didn’t have enough credits? to receive more than what I currently am receiving. This income has been frozen for a second year. I don’t live but I exist because I have no other income from anywhere! I now live in Ludington, MI. I am unable to afford a car so going round trip to get just my medicine costs $8.00 by public transportation. I would work if I was able too and my frustration level skyrockets at times at my physical limitations. Oh wait! I receive $197.00 in food stamps a month. My rent is $700.00 a month so I’m forced to have roommates that must work and aren’t by the Grace of God liers or thieves! So in closing I fear I’ll be existing for the rest of my life because that’s just the way it is and there is nothing I can do about it. But the one main fact is that even though I may complain and get frustrated it could ALWAYS BE WORSE!!!
I feel so bad for you just Judy. May GOD take care of you n I love u.
My name is Steven B NOT steven says. Don’t know why this is happening.
The illegals are getting our social security, that’s a fact they have never worked here but yet our government gives them a check every month , no wonder we are running out of money, they are taking what doesn’t belong to them . They need to work just like we did starting at sixteen years old. My husband and I worked 50 years and the government takes our money and gives it away. It’s appalling what is happen to this country the founding fathers bleed and died for our freedom and now we are about to lose it if Hillary gets in . Vote TRUMP at least he cares about America .its not his personality we are voting for its our freedom.
What happen to my comment.
You should also be aware that the military (both active & retired) will also receive the same low “COLA”.
I agree, that, we retiree’s should get the same percentage raise that Congress gives themselves, plus medical benefits.
It’s a shame we are so (mis)treated.
It will only get worse if Hillary, the murderer, the liar, the thief, the cheat, the woman mistreater (Bill’s accusers), the Potty Mouth, the adulterer, the woman that has accomplished nothing– gets in the White House again!
What a corrupt government we have. Several years ago when we didn’t get a raise and gas was around 4.00
per gallon I called my Rep’s offices and was told that gas wasn’t figured in the cost of living, now that gas is low they put it back in.
Hey, it’s called the system. either your in or your out.
Get mad, get really pissed off, and get out and VOTE!!!! Vote them out!