For the first time in a generation, millions of older people are reportedly facing shrinking Social Security checks next year.
For the first time since automatic increases were adopted in 1975, trustees overseeing Social Security are estimating that there won’t be a cost of living adjustment (COLA) for the next two years. With rising costs of health care and everything else, millions of seniors rely on the Social Security COLAs.
Even with a 5.8 percent COLA in 2009, retirees on Social Security received very little compared to the raise Congress gave itself at the beginning of the year. The raise Congress gave itself pales even more in comparison when you figure that Congress also decided to give each one of themselves almost $6.9 million to spend on ‘expenses.’ There is something majorly wrong with this picture.
Law prevents Social Security benefits from going down, but the monthly payments for millions of people in the Medicare prescription drug program would drop because premiums, which are oftentimes deducted from Social Security payments, are scheduled to rise slightly.