Retirees will receive a modest increase in Social Security benefits next year. The 3.2 percent cost-of-living-adjustment (COLA) is less than half of what seniors saw this year with a record-high 8.7 percent COLA. Next year, retirees will see an extra $50 more per month on average. That will barely make a dent in most budgets.

An article in USA Today found that for decades seniors have been faced with COLAs that are simply too low to keep up with inflation. This has had a cumulative effect resulting in a damaging loss of buying power.

Wrong COLA Calculator

The problem is that retirees tend to spend an overwhelming percentage of their income on housing and healthcare. Neither of these expenses are accurately accounted for when COLA is calculated.

Housing and healthcare expenditures are undercounted because the Consumer Price Index for Urban Wage Earners and Clerical Workers (CPI-W) is the metric used to determine how much COLAs should be each year. Senior spending habits differ vastly from those of younger working people. For years, seniors have been receiving COLAs that just can’t keep pace with the actual price increases older Americans experience.

Seniors Are Special

The Seniors Trust strongly believes the time has come to change how Social Security COLA is calculated. We want the Consumer Price Index for the Elderly (CPI-E) to be used, instead of the CPI-W. The CPI-E more accurately takes into account the unique spending habits of seniors, especially when it comes to higher costs for healthcare, medicine, and housing.

Changing the COLA calculator is just one of the main tenets of the Social Security Expansion Act. This landmark piece of legislation would also provide retirees with an immediate Social Security benefits boost of $200 and shore up the long-term solvency of the program so that it remains intact for all retirees — today and tomorrow.

If you support this mission, please add your name to our petition to Congress.