This an FYI for all my retired seniors that get a Social Security payment monthly….a must read to understand the news of the largest COLA in decades.
Our seniors got some good news recently…..it appears as if there will be a good substantial COLA for next year.
When we last read the tea leaves in May, it was looking like seniors could be looking at an 8.6% adjustment to their monthly Social Security checks in 2023. The cost-of-living adjustment (COLA) happens in October, and with just one month to go, the predicted increase has ticked up. The New York Times reports the Senior Citizens League is now projecting an 8.7% increase for next year. The Social Security Administration will make its announcement on Oct. 13. Our story from May 2022 follows:
Social Security’s cost-of-living adjustment (COLA) doesn’t happen until October, and it’ll be based on the previous three months of inflation numbers. But a forecast from the Senior Citizens League indicates those Social Security checks could see a big hike. CBS News reports the advocacy group for older Americans projected an 8.6% increase for 2023 based on the Consumer Price Index data for April that was released Wednesday. Consumer prices were up 8.3% last month from 12 months earlier, a slight decrease from March’s 8.5% annual increase. The COLA is calculated using a slight variation of that Consumer Price Index (CPI) called the CPI-W. The CPI-W was 8.9% in April.
Some 69 million Americans collect Social Security, and their average check is about $1,658 per month. Should that 8.6% hike come to pass, that would bring it to about $1,800 in 2023. As for the Senior Citizens League’s track record, it ultimately forecast a 6.1% COLA increase for 2022, versus an actual boost of 5.9%—an amount that isn’t keeping up with this year’s rate of inflation. The top three COLA increases since 1975 were 14.3% (1980), 11.2% (1981), and 9.9% (1979). An 8.6% increase would enter the list at No. 4. But it’s possible inflation will ease over the next five months. “I think the action at the Fed is going to slow things down,” Mary Johnson, Social Security and Medicare policy analyst at the Senior Citizens League, tells CNBC.
Not to worry the insurance companies and your c-pays will go up…..meaning that seniors will probably see a lot less of the raise than anticipated.
2023 will bring some major changes to the program…..
https://www.fool.com/investing/2022/09/18/3-changes-to-social-security-retirees-must-know/
Happens every time we get a good COLA….we lose most of it to the health industry….
https://www.fool.com/investing/2022/09/19/kiss-your-101-social-security-raise-goodbye-2023/
One of the worse scams in history….the American healthcare system.
I Read, I Write, You Know
“lego ergo scribo”
In Saner Thought 
Yes, we already know from hard experience that Medicare will grab most of the cost of living increase. No room for rejoicing here. Moving on.
Agreed but the news makes it sound like we will get richer with the large increase….BS chuq
Our state pension increases here are also swallowed up annually by something or other. This year it is inflation, which has left us almost 7% worse off, after the small increase.
Best wishes, Pete.
We will be in worse shape as well chuq
Any thoughts about what this COLA increase does for inflation? Any idea how taxpayers will cover the increase?
Inflation will continue to rise with or without this increase…..There will be no cover they will just get poorer because of the run-away health costs. chuq
Spending does not matter? Then why doesn’t Uncle just print more more money to cover our health care costs? Isn’t government investment just so fabulously wonderful?
Government investments in the people of this country is wonderful…..too bad too many think it is some sort of bad idea. Seniors will have less money to spend so it will not effect inflation…the continuing raising prices is on corporate heads not the consumer or the government. So basically you want to just screw seniors chuq
I am wrong? So, I am wrong because I must want to screw seniors? What a demonstration of logic!
Math has its limits, but inflation is basically a math problem. If the government gives seniors more money, then those seniors have more money to spend.
Instead of looking for villains, try working on the math.
Logic? That is rich…..how many times….the seniors will have little to no extra cash to spend…..the COLA is eaten up…..try that math….and you look for villains in the Dem,s….so take your own advice. chuq
Most seniors spend all their income. You just said they will get a larger check due to the COLA. Will much of that go to insurance companies and c-pays? Perhaps, but that too is spending, and it is spending that is driving up those costs for other people too.
When government pumps large sums into health care and education, costs go up. The is especially true for the people who have to pay the bill themselves.
All that is wishful thinking on your part….chuq
No eyes to see or ears to hear.
Don’t be so hard on yourself. chuq