Inside Track
Social Security Defaults Again on Its Promises
On October 15, the Social Security Administration announced that for the third time in six years there will be no COLA (Cost Of Living Adjustment) to beneficiaries’ checks next year. There was no COLA in 2010 or 2011, thanks to the government index used to determine whether an “adjustment” (increase) was justified, to offset inflation. This year’s culprit was the price of gasoline, which fell 23 percent, wiping out any chance for an increase in the checks going to more than 60 million recipients.
Heroic and often invisible measures have been undertaken in recent years to cover up the program’s insolvency: raising retirement ages, increasing deductibles and co-pays in Social Security’s Medicare program, and forcing recipients to make do with less.
According to the Senior Citizens League, recipients have lost nearly a fourth of their buying power over the last 15 years, thanks to the rising cost of housing and medical expenses. Since 2000, housing costs for seniors have increased by 44 percent, heating oil by 159 percent, eggs by 117 percent, and gasoline by 76 percent. Since then, however, Social Security’s COLAs have averaged just 2.2 percent per year.
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