I think Seniors saw their last COLA increase in Social Security for

[monmouth]

many years to come. I would have loved to have received the $250 for COLA, since there will be no increases in the near future. When the pubs take over you can bet they will never, ever give seniors an increase or even a check to tide them over. Rent and food prices will continue to rise but what do they care. I guess you could say "those were the good old days."...

[BrklynLiberal]

1. I know. Too bad EVERYTHING around us is going up in cost......

I better start shopping around now for a large cardboard carton and a spot near the highway..preferably in an area sheltered with an overpass...

:scared: :cry: x(

[monmouth]

3. Make sure it's not a truck route, they're noisy and splashy..LOL. I'm

putting an lol but in reality with hosp. insurance rising with other costs the thought is not that far out there...

[BrklynLiberal]

19. I know...many of us who are on fixed income are screwn..

[WHEN CRABS ROAR]

2. My SS check is $760.00 a month. Think about that. Time to change.

[dixiegrrrrl]

7. Mine is less.

I chose a career in the non-profit world, little dreaming the day would come when
the promise of Soc. Security would be under attack.

At least I have the comfort of knowing for a fact I saved a few lives and changed for the better quite a few more.

Wonder if Timmy can say the same?

[DesertFlower]

11. OMG. mine is $1469. i went on SSDI

when i was 49. the amount i would have received when i filed was about $760. by the time i got it a year and a half later it was up to $919. when i reached 65 and 8 months it turned into regular SS.


my mom's was about $600. then my dad died. they were divorced for 45 years, but because they were married for more than 10 years she got the spousal benefit. brought her up over $400 a month.

[LiberalEsto]

4. I hope I'll even GET Social Security

I'm 58 now.
Unemployed 26 months but didn't file for unemployment benefits because my base pay was miniscule by the time I stopped getting assignments.

We're struggling to pay the kids' student loans (one's unemployed, one's a nanny and makes very little). My husband has a job, but he works long hours and weekends just to keep it.

We can't save a dime, and most of my husband's retirement money was tied up in Fannie Mae stock which is now worthless (he worked there 17 years).

Goddess, I hope there's still Social Security left when and if I manage to get old enough to apply.

[pinto]

5. Soc. Security COLA's are tied to a set formula. See ->

Cost-Of-Living Adjustments

Since 1975, Social Security general benefit increases have been cost-of-living adjustments or COLAs. The 1975-82 COLAs were effective with Social Security benefits payable for June in each of those years; thereafter COLAs have been effective with benefits payable for December.

Prior to 1975, Social Security benefit increases were set by legislation.

Automatic Increases

What is a COLA?

Legislation enacted in 1973 provides for cost-of-living adjustments, or COLAs. With COLAs, Social Security and Supplemental Security Income (SSI) benefits keep pace with inflation.

No COLA

There will be no increase in Social Security benefits payable in January 2011, nor will there be an increase in SSI payments.

How is a COLA calculated?

The Social Security Act specifies a formula for determining each COLA. According to the formula, COLAs are based on increases in the Consumer Price Index for Urban Wage Earners and Clerical Workers (CPI-W). CPI-Ws are calculated on a monthly basis by the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

A COLA effective for December of the current year is equal to the percentage increase (if any) in the average CPI-W for the third quarter of the current year over the average for the third quarter of the last year in which a COLA became effective. If there is an increase, it must be rounded to the nearest tenth of one percent. If there is no increase, or if the rounded increase is zero, there is no COLA.

COLA Computation

The last year in which a COLA became effective was 2008. Therefore the law requires that we use the average CPI-W for the third quarter of 2008 as the base from which we measure the increase (if any) in the average CPI-W. The base average is 215.495, as shown in the table below.

Also shown in the table below, the average CPI-W for the third quarter of 2010 is 214.136. Because there is no increase in the CPI-W from the third quarter of 2008 through the third quarter of 2010, there is no COLA for December 2010.

<more info at>

http://www.ssa.gov/OACT/cola/colaseries.html

[suston96]

6. Wife and I just got notices from Social Security - in the mail....

Telling us that we aren't getting a COLA this year.

Does Social Security pay postage? Yeah, right.

[DesertFlower]

12. i got one too. what a waste of paper and postage.

[dixiegrrrrl]

8. Even getting the 250.00 is a rip off.

Here's why:

Assuming there were COLAs in the land, any % increase in based on current check amount.

So EACH increase adds to the total check amount that the next increase would be based on.
Thus gradually the increases would result in slightly larger checks each year, which was the whole point of
COLA.
Before they changed the formula to not measure any real world price increases.

But just getting an annual 250.00 check does nothing to raise the actual monthly check amount over time.

[monmouth]

10. This is true but it does make up for a rent increase or adds to a food

budget for many. Instead of catfood we can actually buy tuna (the dark meat)....Sarcasm..

[dixiegrrrrl]

13. I agree with you that we have probably seen our last ever COLA.

I am wondering when I am going to see my last ever Soc. Sec. retirement check.

[TheCowsCameHome]

9. They see seniors as throwaways.

I ripped Scott Brown a new one in an email yesterday, but he'll never even see it.

How I hate politicians in general......

[The Backlash Cometh]

15. It's their own fault for voting in the Republicans.

[monmouth]

16. I've never voted republican in my life. I also don't feel I am at fault

anywhere here. I paid into this fund.

[The Backlash Cometh]

18. I know Seniors who are Republicans & Independents who voted Republicans who expected

increases. The Democrats just didn't do a good job in telling Seniors that they were once again voting against their own interest.

They should do it now.

[The Backlash Cometh]

14. Make no mistake, they will blame Obama for the loss of their increase.

[Faryn Balyncd]

17. WH appointees say "chained CPI" is a "more accurate" measure of inflation .............:

The administration's appointees say that the (already rigged) measure of inflation OVER-ESTIMATES inflation, since they believe we have NOT been having inflation!

Their "solution" is to substitute "chained CPI"....:

Let's lokk at what would happen under "chained CPI":

Suppose all items increase in price by 100% over a number of years. Let's say you once ate rib eye steak at $5/pound and it went to $10/pound. Let's say you quit eating rib eye and substituted hot dogs, which used to be $2/pound, but had risen to $4/pound.

Although you think you have reacted in desperation to 100% inflation, the Bureau of Labor Statistics (and SSA) would then say, under "chained CPI", that "hot dogs are now the new rib eye", and "THERE HAS BEEN NO INFLATION....Not only that, but there has , "in realy" been a 20% DEFLATION".

How do you like them apples?



Edit:
(On second thought, will "road apples" be the "new Fugi"?)

[AnnaLee]

21. More attention should be paid to changes in CPI index

Your example is correct but there is more to the story. Most people on fixed income, especially those reliant on Social Security, don't buy rib-eye in the first place. Some have to stretch a hot dog. So what a change to chained CPI means is not rib-eye to hot dog but hot dog to skip meals. Since CPI increases compound, the older a person is the more the damage done. The current CPI is bad enough at NOT reflecting costs to disabled and old people.

When you look at the sources of increased costs to aging people, how do you substitute health care needs? Do you replace the lowest cost procedure with a cyanide pill? Today the answer might be Medicare but tomorrow it will probably be cyanide as Medicare tightens. Of course the problem is that, in a Christian country, cyanide won't be allowed so the person will just have to die slowly and, sometimes, painfully. So, as is done now, let's just ignore/deweight increases in health care costs.

[jtown1123]

20. It is predicted there will be a COLA next year.

[LibinMo]

22. Betcha there will also be an increase in Medicare Premium

So net gain will be very small or zero.