For the first time since annual automatic cost of living adjustments (COLA) were established for Social Security and supplemental security income in 1975, there will not be an increase next year.
Raises in Social Security and SSI are attached to inflation. To determine the COLA, the third quarter inflation rate is compared to the one the year before. Consumer prices determine the inflation rate and this year they fell 2.1 percent in the third quarter. In addition to higher overall inflation, energy prices last year were so high they affected the third-quarter number. This led to a record 5.8 percent COLA.
This year, inflation was negative, so the average payment to beneficiaries will remain $1,094 a month.
President Barack Obama called on Congress to approve a second round of $250 payments to seniors, veterans, people with disabilities and retired railroad workers. The White House estimates this could cost $13 billion. While Medicare Part B premiums will remain frozen at 2009 levels, Medicare Part D could go up.
That money could go to some 57 million Americans, some of which can be found watching their budgets everyday at the Comal County Senior Center.
“I own my house but the taxes are $1500 a year, plus $500 in home insurance and $300 in car insurance … that leaves me hardly anything.” said Mathias Ortiz, who retired from the old Igram mill and is 69 years old.
“I try to save about $200 a month so I can catch up with what I have to pay,” he said.
“Everything is going up,” said Mary Louis, a retired school nurse. “Rent, taxes, groceries, all except our little, bitty raise,” she said.
Some didn’t see the downside quite as much.
“Don’t be so pessimistic,” said Merle Sarvey, a retired civil servant of 38 years. “I guess you could go to Denmark where all your medicine is free … I don’t know what everybody is talking about. I’ve got more spending money than I have in my whole life.”
Louis didn’t agree.
“I have to give up a dollar for every two dollars the district gives me,” she said.
Clearly, every senior citizen’s situation is different, depending on their specific careers (one’s lifetime wages help determine the amount of Social Security received) and whether they have a private pension.
Lorene Weaver was recently in a position dreaded by people like herself. She was solely reliant on Social Security to survive, and even with an apartment payment at Eden Heights around $200 a month, it still wasn’t enough.
“I think it’s pretty dirty that we didn’t even get a one percent increase, so I’m a little unhappy,” she said.
Because of her circumstances Weaver began job training, long after retirement, with the Experience Work program, where seniors get on-the-job training from employers. When the training period is over the employer has the option of keeping them on the job.
“Robert Lopez and Mary Durham (both of the Comal County Senior Citizens Foundation) asked me to stay and what salary I’d like,” Weaver said. “I told them minimum wage was fine with me.”
Even at minimum wage, working in the afternoons as a receptionist at the senior center keeps Weaver active and happy— all within very modest means.
“I’m 82 years old and doing better than a lot of people,” she said.