Social Security beneficiaries will see only a small automatic cost-of-living increase of three-tenths of a percent next year, the agency announced Tuesday, as a still-struggling economy held down inflation.
The average senior will get an extra $4 per month in their government checks.
Senior citizens said that paltry sum didn’t come close to meeting the needs of the elderly and demanded the presidential candidates address the issue before the election.
“No one can say with a straight face that providing the average senior with an additional four dollars a month will come even close to covering the true cost of living that retirees face,” said Max Richtman, president of the National Committee to Preserve Social Security & Medicare.
On the other side of the equation, the cap on incomes subject to Social Security taxes will go up dramatically — from $118,500 to $127,200. That means all income up to that level is subject to the payroll tax that goes to fund Social Security.
The cost-of-living increase is based on the Labor Department’s Consumer Price Index, which found prices for goods didn’t go up very much this year. But the tax rate is tied to average wages, which did spike in 2016.
Benefits have held relatively flat for nearly a decade, dating back to the Great Recession.
Before that, a surging economy had pushed payments up — including a 5.8 percent increase in 2008. But in 2009 and 2010 there was no increase, 2011 saw a significant 3.6 percent jump, but since then the increases have been less than 2 percent a year. In 2015, there was no increase at all.
• Stephen Dinan can be reached at sdinan@washingtontimes.com.
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