WASHINGTON (AP) - Millions of older people face shrinking Social Security checks next year, the first time in a generation that payments would not rise. The trustees who oversee Social Security are projecting there won't be a cost of living adjustment (COLA) for the next two years. That hasn't happened since automatic increases were adopted in 1975.By law, Social Security benefits cannot go down. Nevertheless, monthly payments would drop for millions of people in the Medicare prescription drug program because the premiums, which often are deducted from Social Security payments, are scheduled to go up slightly.
"I will promise you, they count on that COLA," said Barbara Kennelly, a former Democratic congresswoman from Connecticut who now heads the National Committee to Preserve Social Security and Medicare. "To some people, it might not be a big deal. But to seniors, especially with their health care costs, it is a big deal."
Cost of living adjustments are pegged to inflation, which has been negative this year, largely because energy prices are below 2008 levels.
Advocates say older people still face higher prices because they spend a disproportionate amount of their income on health care, where costs rise faster than inflation. Many also have suffered from declining home values and shrinking stock portfolios just as they are relying on those assets for income.
"For many elderly, they don't feel that inflation is low because their expenses are still going up," said David Certner, legislative policy director for AARP. "Anyone who has savings and investments has seen some serious losses."
About 50 million retired and disabled Americans receive Social Security benefits. The average monthly benefit for retirees is $1,153 this year. All beneficiaries received a 5.8 percent increase in January, the largest since 1982.
More than 32 million people are in the Medicare prescription drug program. Average monthly premiums are set to go from $28 this year to $30 next year, though they vary by plan. About 6 million people in the program have premiums deducted from their monthly Social Security payments, according to the Social Security Administration.
Millions of people with Medicare Part B coverage for doctors' visits also have their premiums deducted from Social Security payments. Part B premiums are expected to rise as well. But under the law, the increase cannot be larger than the increase in Social Security benefits for most recipients.
There is no such hold-harmless provision for drug premiums.
Kennelly's group wants Congress to increase Social Security benefits next year, even though the formula doesn't call for it. She would like to see either a 1 percent increase in monthly payments or a one-time payment of $150.
The cost of a one-time payment, a little less than $8 billion, could be covered by increasing the amount of income subjected to Social Security taxes, Kennelly said. Workers only pay Social Security taxes on the first $106,800 of income, a limit that rises each year with the average national wage.
But the limit only increases if monthly benefits increase.
Critics argue that Social Security recipients shouldn't get an increase when inflation is negative. They note that recipients got a big increase in January—after energy prices had started to fall. They also note that Social Security recipients received one-time $250 payments in the spring as part of the government's economic stimulus package.
Consumer prices are down from 2008 levels, giving Social Security recipients more purchasing power, even if their benefits stay the same, said Andrew G. Biggs, a resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute, a Washington think tank.
"Seniors may perceive that they are being hurt because there is no COLA, but they are in fact not getting hurt," Biggs said. "Congress has to be able to tell people they are not getting everything they want."
Social Security is also facing long-term financial problems. The retirement program is projected to start paying out more money than it receives in 2016. Without changes, the retirement fund will be depleted in 2037, according to the Social Security trustees' annual report this year.
President Barack Obama has said he would like tackle Social Security next year, after Congress finishes work on health care, climate change and new financial regulations.
Lawmakers are preoccupied by health care, making it difficult to address other tough issues. Advocates for older people hope their efforts will get a boost in October, when the Social Security Administration officially announces that there will not be an increase in benefits next year.
"I think a lot of seniors do not know what's coming down the pike, and I believe that when they hear that, they're going to be upset," said Sen. Bernie Sanders, an independent from Vermont who is working on a proposal for one-time payments for Social Security recipients.
"It is my view that seniors are going to need help this year, and it would not be acceptable for Congress to simply turn its back," he said.
___
On the Net:
Social Security Administration: http://www.ssa.gov/
National Committee to Preserve Social Security and Medicare: http://www.ncpssm.org
Copyright 2009 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
You are about to flag this comment as being inappropriate. Please explain why you are flagging this comment in the text box below and submit your report. The blog admin will be notified. Thank you for your input.Comments (73)
Logging you in...
Disable comments for this blog post
Sort by: Date Rating Last Activity
Loading comments...The COLA does not assist the recipient, it is a canard. Raising the payment causes taxes to be raised, causing the cost of articles to increase, making the pension rise null and void. Eliminating the COLA could eventually lower the cost of products and services and ultimately make the pension more valuableShut your 'tatterhole you are lieing through it anyway. 1st , there is no MONEY in the SS ....Not since 1942, when the Damn Democrats robbed it. Ever since we have been lied to about SS. THERE IS NO MONEY IN TBE LOCK BOX. Clinton lied he and Obama lie about everything they do or say. It's all a lie. It doesn't exist. No body believed the Republicans. You love liars who will keep us poor for years.. Now the manure will come home and you'll sleep and eat the waste that the Democrats keep on producing and when they go on big holidays it's your money they spend. And you are too easy to demand that they not take those vacatiojns to Great Barior Reef and into some of the hottest Spots in the world/ That's your money.The government wants everyone on medicare and social security dead as soon as possible. Obama sees them as a drag since they no longer pay taxes to support the welfare state. The retired have spent a lifetime working hard, paying taxes and supporting the millions of leeches who will not work. After retirement they are no longer of any use to the government and will be discarded like a worn out pair of shoes to be replaced by a whole new generation of suckers. The irony is that the elderly will get rationed care, or no care at all, so that the illegal aliens can get free health care. Social darwinism at its best.CUTTING SOCIAL SECURITY INCOME FITS PERFECTLY WITH OBAMA'S MASTER PLAN TO HASTEN THAT END OF LIFE DECISION FOR SENIOR CITIZENS. RATHER THAN WAITING FOR OLD PEOPLE TO DIE FROM EXPENSIVE TO TREAT DISEASES, STARVATION WILL BE QUICKER, EASIER AND WILL "BEND THE COST CURVE DOWN", AS THE LIBERALS WOULD SAY.Congress has used these funds as their piggy bank for years. Now they want socialized health care for all - just think of the amount of money they can get their hands on if this enacted. It won't be a piggy bank - it will be their honey pot.First, the Seniors will suffer the most under Obama's "health" care plan, and Obama has just started. Next, Social Security will remain the same; however, the premiums for medicare and prescription drugs will go up. True Americans who helped make America great, will now take second place to all the illegals who get free medical care thru medicaid, free food stamps, free welfare, and so on. All our government needs to do is stop supplying illegals with free health care, and that alone would save our country and medicaid $11 billion dollars a year. But no, they will not do that. They would rather complain about how much Seniors are using in medical care each year.my god america this guy not only wants healthcare did you read the last part he plans on taking more next year wjhen he gets healthcare rammed down our throats. he plans on passing climate change and more financial regulations. people america is sitting on a timebomb with this guy and total control of congress. the adage is " power corrupts absolute power corrupts absolutely" america we have to put a bottleneck up and slow down this freight train till 2010 election cycle. hold your congressman or woman accountable on a daily basis. tell them they work for you not obama or there party. moderates you were scammed by this guy remember open your eyes before its to late. he only won by less than 3% meaning independants put him in on lies. you are the key to your kids futures. what is done is done but there is still time to get to nov 2009.The idea of the new President and Congress is everyone should help pay their way. Certainly this was the though behind selecting obese people and other chronic sufferers to pay additional taxes to support healthcare. Following this reasoning it would not be unreasonable for Congress and presidential advisors to suggest that people collecting social security pay additional taxes to help support their healthcare.This is America, you were only guaranteed a representative government and you got it, you were never guaranteed a smart one.
I am a disabled person who depends on SS, SSI, medicaid, medicare, foodstamps and whatever else I can get to help me survive. I would like to get insurance so I could get some of the healthcare that insured people get, but I am too big of a risk or insurance would be too expensive for me. There are people who do take advantage of the system, but there are those who truly need what is there also. Don't forget that those illegal aliens that everyone blames for so much get jobs here from rich people who hire them because they don't have to pay them fair wages. So do you blame the illegals or the greedy, selfish rich people for the illegal alien "problem?" I'm all for some kind of nationalized healthcare program because the one that exists now is apparently not working so well. It doesn't have to be identical to Canada's or France's but something has to happen. The social security system isn't a bad thing. It's something that helps those who need it. Maybe there should be a little more to be done to weed out those who are taking advantage of the system or make jobs available for disabled people. I know that there are jobs for disabled people--I have had many jobs--but after a seizure or two (I have epilepsy) I get fired for some reason or another (of course not related to my disability), my hours get cut so low that it is not worth working, or my work environment becomes intollerable. Things to consider before one goes saying negative things about social security and medicaire and even a nationalized healthcare plan. Don't let the media freak you out about socialism every time nationalized health care is mentioned. I highly doubt Americans will let this country become completely socialist or communist.Obama's Slogan:
From each according to their Ability...especially the RICH...
To each according to what he and or the Government determines to be their needs...Why are this idiot and all his cronies still in OUR White House? No money for SS hike? Take away all the expensive GOVERNMENT LIFETIME medical plans which we pay for - give it back to us! They surely don't need to have it, what with all the pots they have their claws into! hey! We are NOT impressed with you! GIVE US BACK OUR COUNTRY!!!Obama - giving illegal aliens Granny's Social Security and healthcare.The sooner seniors die - the happier Obama, SEIU, (illegal aliens union) and ACORN will be. The Democrats will also take Granny's retirement money with higher estate taxes.
Hope & Change but not for seniors....and baby boomers you are next.
Does Obama still plan on giving out $2.7 billion of fast food coupons this fall to feed the homeless.In regard to SS cola's, I worked for more than 40 years paying into this. I still pay $1200. per year for medicare drugs. Then on top of that I pay Fed. taxes again, ad this has been taxed several times in that 40 years........
So what do these people want from us? We give and give and they take and take and want more.
I can hardly wait until Nov. 2010, to vote all of these yahoo's out, then we only have to wait until 2012, to get rid of Obummer and his carzs..........Social Security, MediCare, and HealthCare will never be fixed until Congress, The President and his staff, and the Judges and their staffs are under the same plan that the citizens are under.But as long as they set the rules and disregard the voters wishes........THE CITIZEN WILL REMAIN......A SECOND CLASS CITIZEN.
XXXXXXXXXXXXX
NOTE TO DEMOCRATS.........
Sometimes when you win.......you really lose........2010.
Obama is going to be a lame duck next year, I can't wait!The Federal government never misses an opportunity to cheat it's citizens out of what is due them and the first to invent ways to confiscate wealth and waste it on frivolous nonsense. The Revolution will be televised.With lower energy prices, we now have negative inflation so the seniors don't get their COLA?Will someone inform these Ivy League geniuses that "energy prices" matter less when you are not driving to work every day, and otherwise lots of prices on everyday items have gone up? Go ask a senior how much cheaper they think things are for them. In any case, some of them are still paying off last winter's heating bill. Tell them they don't need more money!
There is money to bail out banks.
There is money to bail out GM and Chrysler
There is money for cash for clunkersBut there is NO money for people who get social security?
How does that work? I guess there is only money for Union thugs that got this fascist elected.
My pay has been cut the last three years, and even when I got a pay raise, taxes cames out therefore I did not get as much as a Social Security recepient. I am now 61 and have said for years this would happen. Government can not manage anything, and surely not the health cost reduction plan they healthcare. For forty years I have voted in every election, and this administration is the most corrupt. I still want my freedoms guranteed not government run programs of standing in lines and being told what to do. I would rather die in peace than have an assigned government goon standing over me telling me to hurry up so he could go home. Of course it has been ok to spend trillions on the wall street buddies, but not the working folks of America. The government only cares about the tax money going into the treasury and not the citizens. Vote them all out.not only no COLA but obama wants to take 1/2 a trillion from the money we paid into SS and give it to people who haven't paid into the program. then tell us no services will be cut............change we can bereave in
Posting anonymously.
Tweet this comment
-->Subscribe to
And again, here is more proof that the government can't effectively run a program. But wait a minute, it is all the cost of healthcare's fault. If there was universal healthcare Social Security would be fine. Oops, there is universal healthcare for seniors, its called Medicare and is another failing governmen program. Come on liberals you can't have it both ways.. I forgot, the answer is increasing the Social Security and all other taxes even higher because those evil rich people with jobs are not contributing enough and want to kill old people by not sharing their wealth.
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment