The Senior Citizen’s League (TSCL) predicted that this year’s increase in the cost of living would be better than the projections made earlier. But the increase was still the lowest in years.
TSCL, in an interview with Nexstar, said that “SSA May Need To Reanalyze How COLA Increases Are Determined.”
The estimated COLA increase by TSCL, a nonpartisan senior advocacy group, reached up to 2.7% in mid-June of 2024.
The group changed its projection to 3% as they reported last Thursday after the Labor Bureau’s Consumer Price Index’s publication for Urban Wage Earners (CPI-W),
This 3%, since 2020, is the lowest COLA increase that ever happened.
CPI-W is an index that is used to estimate the average cost of goods and services. Also, it is used by the Social Security Administration in calculating the yearly COLA increases.
The Senior Citizen’s League (TSCL) predicted that this year’s increase in the cost of living would be better than the projections made earlier. (PHOTO: The US Sun)
COLA Increases For 2024
TSCL said that even if the higher 2024 estimates be taken into consideration, it did not necessarily follow that it is a good basis for determining the average senior’s spending habits.
The senior advocacy group further said that CPI-W does not show the high prices that seniors pay continuously for their needed items like food, drugs, and other housing and medical services that are not Medicare-covered.
TSCL said that Social Security benefits have lost, since 2000, one-third of the buying capacity even if the COLA constantly increases for the past 22 years.
