Latest News
The eroding value of your Social Security dollars
Anyone with even a modicum of interest in Social Security knows that Cost of Living Adjustments in recent years have ranged from zero to very small, certainly not enough to keep up with the rising living expenses America’s seniors have been experiencing. You can blame a lot of that on the use of the Consumer Price Index for Urban Wage & Clerical Works (CPI-W), which is the inflation measure currently used to set COLA increases. But an equal share of blame goes to the painful rise in seniors’ medical and healthcare costs, which have been substantially outpacing COLA increases for years, and will continue to do so for the next 5 to 10 years regardless of any Congressional action taken. This article by Sean Williams appearing at madison.com explains the issues and discusses how using the Consumer Price Index for the Elderly (CPI-W) might result in higher COLA increases, but could also result in faster depletion of Social Security’s Trust Fund unless Congress acts soon to fix the program’s solvency issues. Click here to read more.