It is no secret that Social Security is poorly capitalized, and many Americans struggle to get through their monthly income controls. Here are the recent abouts and happenings with COLA!
Inflation problem in America
Americans are confronted with the bitter reality of rising inflation. Consumer prices increased by 0.6 per cent in May, bringing the year-to-date inflation rate to 5%. It is the speediest rate of growth since August 2008, and it demonstrates the influence of steeply growing demands as consumers continue dining, shopping, and travelling as the economy reopens.
Some food manufacturers and grocers resort to “shrinkflation,” which involves packaging food in smaller containers while charging the same price to manage shoppers’ standards. And it’s not just food prices that are rising. Last month, used car prices increased by more than 7%, while household furnishings and airfares also increased.
All while senior citizens are caught among skyrocketing costs and a cost-of-living increase that isn’t struggling to keep up until around 2021. The Social Security Administration, which adapts disbursements for the following year each fall, increased payments for 2021 by 1.3 per cent. It means that Social Security checks aren’t coordinating with the price increases that have hit people’s pockets this year.
What is COLA?
The COLA increase in social security is derived from the CSP (CPI-W), measured between the fourth quarter of 2019 and the 3rd quarter of 2020, which shows muted inflation. The COLA increase is based on a consumption price index. The average beneficiary receives $20 more a month, from $1.523 to $1.543.
This year, senior citizens’ double-digit prices went up, according to data compiled by the League, in expenditure groups such as car and truck rentals, gasoline, fuel oil, beef, and pork roasting. The Social Security Administration announced a 1.3 percent hike for 70 million Americans regarding social security and supplemental security income about the cost of adaptation (COLA), which represents an increase in social security benefits against inflation.
Seniors and disabled citizens rely heavily on Social Security benefits for a significant portion of their income, and it is past time for Social Security benefits to reflect their lifestyles. Using a COLA that reflects how retirees spend their money – particularly in health care – is a no-brainer that will increase benefits and make Social Security work better for those who rely on it.
The “Fair COLA For Seniors Act of 2021,” introduced by U.S. Rep. John Garamendi, D-Walnut Grove, would require Social Security to use the Consumer Price Index for the Elderly to calculate a more equitable cost of living adjustment for seniors.
It would increase benefits and guarantee that Social Security cost-of-living adjustments reflect the actual rising costs for seniors and disabled Americans. Garamendi was one of 23 people who signed on to the bill. Except for Republican Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick of Pennsylvania, all of the sponsors are Democrats. According to the release, the Consumer Price Index for the Elderly rose at an annual average rate of 3.1 percent from 1982 to 2011, compared to 2.9 percent for the current methods. Garamendi was applauded for initiating this step of challenging the legislation.
Must Check: The social security cost of living: Updated news
Inflation protection is among the most impressive attributes of Social Security. However, the prevailing way of estimating inflation understates the cost of living for seniors and people with disabilities, who are disproportionately burdened by soaring prescription drugs and other essential medical care costs. This legislation better prohibits the scouring of Social Security’s modest but vital earned benefits over time by far more precisely accounting for the costs borne by Social Security beneficiaries.
The 2022 adjustment could reach 5.3%, up from 1.3% by 2021. It would be a significant upsurge. This increase was estimated at 5.8% by the Non-Party Senior Citizens League based on the Consumer Price Index Office of Labor Statistics since 2009.
Also Read: Reviews of US Senior Citizens About Social Security Cost of Living Adjustment, Why They Are Crying?
The latest update in 2021 about Social security cost of living adjustment
The actual level of growth depends on the economy and if the Federal Reserve decides to increase interest rates. With the increase starting January 1, 2022, the final decision will be made at the end of the fiscal year.
What little amount of increase we on Social Security Disability do receive. Is immediately taken from us for some other sort of increase. Such as rent, insurance, etc. We see little to no increase in our pocket. They find a way to take it from us
We all need help now. Please help.
We need help now
That’s all good and said, however, if Medicare price is also raised the actual col shrinks considerably! Each year they give a raise and then take it away with Medicare. Today’s pay is a tremendous amount higher than when we first started working. They need to start making it equal to today’s minimum wage.
My biggest problem is some months like this one I have to go six weeks between checks. It hits that way more times through the year. See I get my check on the 3rd Wednesday every month, the way it works I don’t get a check every 4 weeks.
Sometimes it’s 5 to 6 weeks between checks, when I worked I got paid every week.
I remember when I had a job, every week my check would come and it was always on time. Nowadays the only thing that’s reliable is knowing how many weeks between checks because most of the time it’s 5 to 6 weeks.
An increase would be great. But by the time you pay an added increase in Medicare and in some cases taxes then you usually have lost money rather than gained any benefit.
Any increase in our Social Security will be destroyed by the increase in the Cost of Medicare. It always happens, we never really see any more money.
Regardless of where the economy is at the end of the year, Social Security has not had a decent addition in far to long with so many seniors barely getting by so open up your pockets Washington and give us the increase we need badly and deserve since we all worked most of our lives and contributed to our country and deserve better than what we currently receive.
Only problem with COLA is that our Medicare cost usually is the amount of the increase of our Social Security Check.
Seniors living on SS need the increase now inflation did not wait till 2022. Just saying ???????
What happened to the promise of ss going up $200 a month by pres Biden during all his campaign speeches ?
How about quit giving our money away to countries and people who hate us. Make the house and senate live like the rest of us and have them get what real citizens have to live on and have the same health plans we are forced to have. Then see how quick things change. How does the lawmakers become millionaires on their salary without insider trading or under the table handouts. Please explain to me how this is possible.
The Government needs to reimburse money it borrowed from SSI. That would help a lot!🤬
That’s sad the United. States always sending wads of money to this and that country. No one is helping us out. They rather us old ppl die off so they can take the money we have worked for and do the hell what they want to!! GOD help us all!!
That would be great , but then SS comes in and takes instead of 148.00 out of our checks they will be taking 200.00
I only get $850.00 to live on every month. So I have to be very careful how I spend $$. If my check increased like the cost of living increased I could eat better. Is that too much to ask for ?
I’ve worked my whole life. I just draw $871 a month I live in a camping trailer cause I can’t afford to pay rent I was working. But lost my job in January of 2020. Cause I got lung cancer. Went through 7 weeks chemo and radiation treatments. Have been unable to return to work have a lot of health issues. Copd diabetes and have nerve damage in my legs can’t walk good. Think they need to up social security. People need more money to live on. So please pass and help. Wish I could draw disiabilty. Would get more money but I’m 68. And can’t work. Sure wish I could.
Medical help is an absolute necessity!!
Flooded with medical bills!! Medicare only cover 80% as you are well aware.
When your income from SSDI is not enough sometimes I am gotten turned down for medical treatment. This is America. This should not be happing!!!
Your Social security income goes up for cost of living, and Medicare insurance and prescription will take 50% of that
Will never be able to live on what social security gives especially when the government keeps taking it for their use I worked 45 years for mine and worked part time to make ends meet and it still wasn’t enough I hope we get a huge raise🥰
We senior citizens that rely on Social Security income alone need a pay raise some of us don’t even get $1,000.00 a month and have to try to live and eat and buy necessities on little after paying rent and utilities! We need a pay raise on Social Security now not in 6 months! Please help us to survive in 2021!
Seniors should be taken care of ! Everyone getting unfair and outrageous checks will seniors are cast to wayside! Help
With the cost of housing an rental property increasing ,where is the room to purchase much needed medicine an groceries.For most seniors who want to remain living on there on are having to take in family members two offset their income . While C.O.L.A hasn’t maintained to keep up with a ever evolving economy in today’s market. H E L P!
It is time to help seniors out more. The people can get off their butt and work a little harder like we did in our younger years. Stop paying them to stay home and make more kids. We never got all this money from having house full of kids
This administration is giving away money that could help the elderly. More will be spent to allow illegals in this country than you have sent to the elderly! We are watching and I promise you, there are going to be big changes next election and you are not going to like it in Washington!
It would be nice to get an increase I am suffering bad on the amount of money I get each month it affects everything I do is hard to make a decision whether to buy food or to buy medication each month to pay rent rent
When do sss recipients get their $200 increase?
Yes it’s about time we really deserve this increase we r tired of worrying how we budget a little SS income coz we worked so hard on our youth we were taken advantage of today hotel maid on ly clean 14-15 rooms per day our time we were overloaded with 18 rooms a day. At the nursing home they give us 18 patient to take care of I hurt my back 2 x in 2 yrs terms that cause my disability n depression today
I live in Va , every time I get an cost of living adjustment on my Social Security they take it away by adding something else so I can get less pay. I get barely $800 to live on for rest of the month I have to work and I’m disabled, so if you make over what you get on Social Security they want to take that away from me so I don’t know what to do yeah I have to work mine is getting ridiculous. You can’t win for losing.
I was promised good life. Worked over 25 years. I take in less than 1000. A month. Tell me how this is good life. Only ones who retired with good Benefits are federal or state workers. We paid same amount yet they make more and men make more. It’s a sad day for so many women
IT IS EXTREMELY HARD.
I GO WITH OUT.
SOME OF US. HAVE NO SHOES.
BLESSINGS ALWAYS.
WHISPERING. WOLF.
Last year the $20 that I received from the social security was increase in the premium for the Medicare that is deduct from the check before arrive to my hands is very sad
All the life working and them you have to count the pennies to be able to buy the food and pay the other needs is very hard times at end of our lives please help the retirees
Thank you God Bless
This is like floating in the ocean without a lifejacker! How long can we survive?
Social Security needs a big pay increase. Govt is keeping seniors in poverty. Ridiculous. Work your whole life for a pittance. But give away to illegals for free who don’t work. Awful.
Double social security. Stop keeping seniors in poverty. They worked their entire life. Congress give back monies you took out of SS. Shame on Congress.
You get a raise in social security and everything else increases and sometimes you end up with less than before the increase
I received a $12.00 a month increase. Yippie
We seniors need more help. I only get 441.00 a month . Have to eat food that does not hurt my liver. Can’t eat what my husband eats. So some goes to food and my personal bills and then can not afford to go to the doctor. Don’t always have code pay money, medicine money, or other code pays for test emergencies or hospital. So I suffer at home and pray. Also have a disability! So they switched me from it to social security when I reached the age for it. Way less money. A lot harder to make it.
They always raise our Medicare with the social security amount which make raise much smaller
We desperately need another stimulus to help us now, we shouldn’t have to choose between food and medicine!
They take care of everyone except the seniors !! Rents are high, food Doctors , medicine and everything went up but the SS benefits ! Why we all work hard and a lot of us still work ! It just is not right !!
We desperately need another stimulus to help us now, we shouldn’t have to choose between food and medicine!
worth repeating
There were a few times when the increased cost of Medicare took away my raise so I got nothing. This happened more than once. Also with the increase in other bills I was in the negative. A larger COLA increase should help many of us seniors.
What’s the sense if you have to pay it to Medicaid they take it you get food stamps they take it so what’s the sense of a race you don’t see it you can’t pay your bills can’t pay your rent If you want to houses they don’t give me your Social Security that sucks
I don’t know how we are supposed to live on social security. The unemployed people got a 600.00 and 300.00 increase and were still living on our social security. We worked our lifetime and now we’re not cared about. Stimulus package for families that have so many children still gets more money. We need to be thought of.
Seniors n disabled patients depend on this to support them monthly and with everything increasing rapidly congress should always consider this of very importance.
They never fail to increase their pay raise a hefty amount and they don’t actually need their checks to live on comfortably.
The increase does nothing for us Seniors because it inflates our income and puts us in another tax bracket which along with the Medicare increase the increase is consumed. Also every year our copayment increase thereby sometimes results in a decrease in the SS check!
My husband and I struggle to make our ss checks stretch from check to check!!
When I read the average ss check is over $1,500 I could have cried!!!
My husbands check is less than $1,200 & mine is only $1,241. It’s impossible to live with this low of income…….
We honestly live off of bologna & turkey sandwich meat for the most part !!
Please consider strongly the matter of raising social security & disability to a more appropriate cost of living raise…..
It is desperately needed by we that do not have retirement benefits and only have our social security check to rely on!!
Please, please try to put yourselves in our shoes and see how difficult it is paying for Drs visits and our many prescriptions every month !!!
Thank you for reading my letter & for taking all Americans that rely on social security only as a serious matter in the united states !!
A special thank you to the senator that is speer heading our ss raise !! 😊🙏🏻🙏🏻❤️
We need a substantial increase. My retirement from the FBI is down to $48 a month. All of my income goes to insurance. I will probably have to pay for insurance if it goes up this year and not have any supplemental income.
I turned 65 in May and my husband turns 67 this month. He continues to work full time mainly to keep me covered by insurance. I have had numerous health issues for twenty years or more. I take more than fifteen medications daily and now he is talking about ten. We couldn’t have afforded my drugs even with our insurance without using the drug coupon cards that I downloaded online. I use several breathers and inhalers for my severe asthma and several other medications that I got these coupons from the drug companies. I sent in my refills on the first of June and thought there must be a mistake when I found out the amount for them all. So I called the pharmacy and after much research on their part, I learned that since I had a birthday and turned 65, I was Medicare eligible so I wasn’t able to use any drug discount coupons as they’re only available to people below 65 years of age. This makes no sense to me. We as older people with limited resources need assistance with our drug costs as much or more so than younger people. I called the drug company even and was told, sorry … we have nothing to offer in the way of coupons to anyone 65 or older.
I’m 60 deaf and retired. I get ssdi so not SSI so is it the same thing?
Seniors get screwed every minute, hour, day, week, month, year. Costs of living rise every year versus income from S/$ but we’re concerned about critical race theory!
Praying that the Government will see fit to help the elderly. God knows we need not have this concern of choosing whether to buy food or buy medicine with the limited amount of benefits that we now receive. Cost of living increases are a welcomed relief.
I would like to see Congress live on $800 a month. I have worked and paid into Social Security only to see non-citizens receive double what I get and they have never paid into this program. This is to be for those of us who paid into SS, it is not for anyone else
Why are senior citizens and disabled people being left with no extra help? We can’t work but are being forced to lose their homes or apartments, medications they can’t afford. There is no HELP. A huge amount of us will be joining the homeless.
I will be 73yrs on August 8th, my Social Security is just over 1200. a month. I have to live with my sons for the past 7yrs to have a protected place to stay. Senior Citizens places r too expensive for me to live.
I don’t receive d beginning issues mount others get for their beginning
Please let me know what I should do.
Go to the Social Security office.
I will call and go by as soon as possible
I am on Social Security and have stage 4 cancer and am struggling to survive. At the end of this year, I get kicked off Cobra after my prince of an ex-husband divorced me with cancer because he came out as transgender after a 52-year marriage and decided he didn’t want to be married anymore. Last week it cost me $56 to fill my gas tank. My cancer treatments have another 20 months to go and one of the cancer meds alone costs $7,000 per treatment and that doesn’t include the Oncologist’s fee or the infusion by the nurses in the infusion suite. The Cobra out of pocket max with my ex/husbands insurance was $1,000 a year but all the insurance I’ll have to go on are $7,000 a year and some more. With an adjusted gross income this year of $11,817 on Social Security, how am I supposed to survive?
Our country is dying a slow but sure death. We must have term limits for all politicians nationwide for all local and national offices!
Why raise social security when they lower ur food stamps and raise ur pipp on electricity or gas. It defeats the purpose. They act like they are doing us a favor. But it all gets cuts so it stays the same. Stop taking away food stamps and raising the pipp with every raise they give. Bs all of it. Plus health care is outrageous
My SS is 636. A month . When we get a small cola then the insurance that come up goes up.
How little is really given to Seniors to live on when they paid into this for years. However we are giving thousands and thousands to all these illegals flooding across our border and funding other countries, wile we are being treated like low life. We should be taken care of the best since we’re the ones who paved the way for those behind us for every generation. Every generation will have a group of Seniors rising who paved the way for them either good or bad But never the less we should be treated to a much higher standard than we are.
You are so right. We’re being screwed because we’re old!
It doesn’t matter how much my Social Security check increases, because along the same line my Medicare premium goes up the same amount. So no extra money in my pocket at all
Every time we get an increase in our social security payment, your Medicare cost goes up and the wipes out your social security payment increase.
Something definitely needs to be done to increase social security for seniors .
We worked our entire lives and paid into it. Yet each administration borrows from it. No one cares about seniors,just toss us away like trash!
I glad you are addressing this issue. Seniors do have a difficult times living on SS. There is no money left for personal items clothing or anything else. Sometimes family members try to help but when they have families of there own, they have no money either. These times are bad for all of us. When I’d like to get something different to eat I just tell myself I’ m lucky to have a roof over my head. I thankfully for what the government does for us. When President Biden raised are food stamps during the pandemic to 2hundred and some dollars I was getting 6 dollars a month. When he raised them I could go to grocery and buy descent food to eat not some cheap processed food that could be stretched now we are getting 40 some. With the Lords help I’ve made.
Hey you need to make a complaint directly to the IRS office (786) 652-7756)of not getting your check I just got mine $1400 yesterday , after making a complaint Am so happy 🤪
Would be nice, but it will never happen..
Help 🇺🇸🙏😢 us please increase our social security amount . Workers deserve an increase. We’ve payed into the social security system from all of our hard work . I ‘ m Hurting now in more ways than one . . . I’m a senior citizen woman and disabled . . . Hard working my whole life !
I believe that my husband,should have more money put on his. Social security check. His name is Stephen A Carter. We have a horrible time of making it from month to month.