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Inflation’s Devastating Impact on Social Security Benefits
The release of another month of terrible inflation news has prompted a steady deluge of news reports and pundit forecasts about what the 2023 COLA calculation might bring for those drawing Social Security benefits. But there’s another side to this story…the further, cascading erosion of the value of monthly benefits and the steady loss of purchasing power faced by seniors. Fox Business reporter Megan Henney, in a post today on q13fox.com, takes a look at The Senior Citizens League’s (TSCL)recent comments pointing to a 40% loss of buying power realized by seniors since 2000.
TSCL’s commentary paints a bleak picture for those in their retirement years with this set of statistics: “Although Social Security benefits have climbed by 64% since 2000 thanks to cost-of-living adjustments, typical senior expenses through March 2022 have actually grown by more than double that rate – 130% – as consumer prices soar. The Labor Department reported that inflation surged by 8.5% in March, the fastest pace since December 1981, and continued to hover near that high in April, with prices rising by 8.3%.”
We’ll need to wait until October to find out what the 2023 COLA will be, but all signs this spring point to a further worsening of this precarious situation for seniors. Read Ms. Henney’s article here…