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📂 Category: cost of living adjustment,seniors,social security,social security administration
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WASHINGTON (AP) — The ongoing government shutdown is delaying the announcement of Social Security’s annual cost-of-living adjustment for tens of millions of beneficiaries.
Social Security’s 2024 COLA announcement was originally scheduled for Wednesday, and will now be on October 24. It was timed according to the September Consumer Price Index, which has also not yet been released.
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The agency adjusts its benefits each year based on inflation. The postponement of the announcement is the latest example of how the government shutdown, which has entered its third week with little progress toward a resolution, has made it difficult for people to plan their finances.
Senior Citizens Association and AARP forecasts expect a COLA increase of approximately 2.7%. About 70.6 million people, including retirees, the disabled and children, receive Social Security benefits.
Social Security Administration beneficiaries have expressed concerns that next year’s increase will not be enough to meet rising costs.
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Sue Conard, a 75-year-old retired nurse from La Crosse, Wisconsin, and SSA recipient, recently traveled to the U.S. Capitol with other retired members of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees to push for tangible progress toward access to health care protections to end the shutdown, as well as changes to Social Security benefits.
She said she wants lawmakers to change the calculation for how COLAs are determined because the standard CPI measure, which includes a market basket of consumer goods and services, does not take into account many costs typical of older Americans.
“The question of how COLA is determined is completely wrong because health care is not taken into account in the CPI,” Conard said, speaking on the front steps of the Longworth House office building.
Some lawmakers have proposed legislation that would make the SSA use a different index, called the Consumer Price Index for the Elderly (CPI-E), to calculate cost-of-living increases that measure price changes based on seniors’ spending patterns on things like health care, food and medicine.
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A group of Democratic lawmakers has proposed legislation to change the CPI calculation of COLA benefits to the CPI-E. Last session, Sen. Bob Casey, D-Pa., proposed legislation that would change COLA’s budget calculation, but that never got a hearing in the Senate Finance Committee.
COLA “is not just a source of income — it is a lifeline of independence and dignity, for tens of millions of elderly Americans,” said Misiah Minter Jordan, CEO of AARP. Even with the COLA amendment, the majority of Americans still face challenges covering basic expenses, she said.
Vanessa Fields, a 70-year-old former social worker and AFSCME member from Philadelphia, said she pays nearly $1,000 a month for groceries, which is more than in previous years. She said the ACA is not keeping pace with rising costs, “and we will be in a bad situation if lawmakers don’t act.”
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The agency is expected to begin notifying beneficiaries of the new benefit amount starting in early December. Retirement and Supplemental Security Income benefits will be adjusted starting Jan. 1, 2026, without any delay despite the current government’s fall in appropriations, a Social Security spokesperson, speaking on the condition of anonymity for COLA’s preview, said.
COLA’s delayed announcement comes as the National Social Security Plan faces steep financial shortfalls in the coming years, as the agency has seen significant workforce cuts.
The Social Security and Medicare trustees’ annual report released in June said the program’s trust fund would not be able to pay full benefits starting in 2034, instead of last year’s estimate of 2035. If the trust fund was exhausted, the government would be able to pay only 81% of scheduled benefits, the report said.
In addition, the agency laid off at least 7,000 people from its workforce of 60,000 earlier this year, putting pressure on remaining workers to handle claims and answer inquiries from a growing number of beneficiaries.
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