What Needs to be Done to Keep America’s Retirees from Going Broke
Thanks to improved medical care and healthy lifestyles, older Americans are living longer than ever. An article by 24/7 Wall St. points out that this means many seniors are outliving their savings. In the 2020 census, there were 5.7 million people between the ages of 85 and 94 and 631,000 over the age of 94. These numbers are expected to grow as baby boomers age.
This creates a problem because people have a poor understanding of how long they will live and tend to underestimate how much money they will need for retirement. As a result, many seniors are having to go back to work, often at hourly, low-paying jobs to try to supplement their retirement income.
According to the article, about 40 percent of baby boomers have no retirement savings. They will rely solely on Social Security payments, which average about $1,688 monthly. That is simply not enough money especially when you consider how inflation has increased the costs of everything from groceries to gasoline and medical costs continue to skyrocket.
Congress Can Help
Fortunately, help is available if only Congress would enact the Social Security Expansion Act. The Seniors Trust is a strong supporter of this landmark piece of legislation that will buttress the long-term solvency of Social Security by expanding benefits for seniors — not cutting them.
When passed, this legislation will make four major changes to Social Security for retirees:
• Benefits will be increased for most recipients by about $200 per month.
• The Consumer Price Index for the Elderly (CPI-E) will be used to calculate Social Security Cost-of-Living Adjustments (COLAs) instead of the Consumer Price Index for Urban Wage Earners (CPI-W) used currently. The CPI-E takes the unique spending habits of seniors into account — particularly regarding the cost of healthcare — and offers a more realistic COLA for retirees.
• Social Security minimum benefits will be increased to provide higher payments to seniors and greatly reduce senior poverty.
• Enhanced benefits would be set to greatly reduce senior poverty to guarantee the long-term solvency of the Social Security program.
If you want to see seniors get bigger Social Security benefits, please join our efforts to enact the Social Security Expansion Act. An easy way to do that is by signing our petition to Congress. It’s time our lawmakers do what’s best for America’s retirees.
