![]() "We’ve heard from thousands of who have exhausted their retirement savings, who have started eating just one meal a day, started cutting their pills in half because they can’t afford their prescription drugs," writes Senior Citizens League chairman Rick Delaney, in a letter sent to every member of Congress. ![]() Those have included a 48% surge in gasoline costs over the last year and a 39% jump in home heating oil, according to research from the senior group. “Higher income could lead to trims in food stamps, rental assistance or Medicare Extra Help, which covers most prescription drug costs," Johnson tells MoneyWise.Ī petition drive launched in early September has already gathered more than 38,000 signatures in favor of a direct payment to help the elderly cope with painful increases in prices. And Mary Johnson, a policy analyst with The Senior Citizens League, says some Social Security recipients could see cuts in other benefits because of their larger checks. If the advocates are right, Social Security checks next year will see their biggest increase since 1983, when the COLA was 7.4%.īut a 6.1% increase in this year's average monthly benefit of $1,555 would give a retiree about $1,650 per month. The September data is due for release on Wednesday, and that will allow Social Security to make its big announcement. The size is determined by the government's inflation numbers from the third quarter, meaning July, August and September. The COLA for 2022 could be far greater - as high as 6.1%, the league says. That increase has been gobbled up by price hikes in 2021. It raised benefit checks by an average $20, according to the nonpartisan advocacy group The Senior Citizens League. You can find more information about the 2022 COLA here.Based on how inflation ran during 2020, Social Security's cost of living adjustment for this year, which began affecting payments in January, was 1.3%. Choose email or text under “Message Center Preferences” to receive courtesy notifications. The retirement earnings test exempt amount will also change in 2022.īe among the first to know! Sign up for or log in to your personal my Social Security account today. For example, the maximum amount of earnings subject to Social Security payroll tax in 2022 will be higher. January 2022 marks other changes that will happen based on the increase in the national average wage index. ![]() If you don’t have an account yet, you must create one by November 17, 2021, to receive the 2022 COLA notice online. Did you know you can receive a text or email alert when there is a new message waiting for you? That way, you always know when we have something important for you – like your COLA notice. If you prefer to access your COLA notice online and not receive the mailed notice, you can log in to your personal my Social Security account to opt out of a mailed COLA notice and any other notices that are available online by updating your Preferences in the Message Center. You can access this information in early December prior to the mailed notice. But, if you want to know your new benefit amount sooner, you can securely obtain your Social Security COLA notice online using the Message Center in your my Social Security account. We will mail COLA notices throughout the month of December to retirement, survivors, and disability beneficiaries, SSI recipients, and representative payees. This change means prices for goods and services, on average, are a little more expensive, so the cost-of-living adjustment (COLA) helps to offset these costs. The CPI-W rises when inflation increases, leading to a higher cost-of-living. Federal benefit rates increase when the cost-of-living rises, as measured by the Department of Labor’s Consumer Price Index (CPI-W). Approximately 70 million Americans will see a 5.9% increase in their Social Security benefits and Supplemental Security Income (SSI) payments in 2022.
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