Lower Gas Prices Means No Social Security Increase Next Year

[Purveyor]

Oct 11, 8:15 AM (ET)
By STEPHEN OHLEMACHER

WASHINGTON (AP) — For just the third time in 40 years, millions of Social Security recipients, disabled veterans and federal retirees can expect no increase in benefits next year, unwelcome news for more than one-fifth of the nation's population.

They can blame low gas prices.

By law, the annual cost-of-living adjustment, or COLA, is based on a government measure of inflation, which is being dragged down by lower prices at the pump.

The government is scheduled to announce the COLA — or lack of one — on Thursday, when it releases the Consumer Price Index for September. Inflation has been so low this year that economists say there is little chance the September numbers will produce a benefit increase for next year.

Prices actually have dropped from a year ago, according to the inflation measure used for the COLA.

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http://apnews.myway.com/article/20151011/us--social_security-cola-f5098be9ab.html

[LiberalArkie]

1. What with the price of food and meds being up so much, I can't afford the gas anyway. Weird

[yeoman6987]

5. For seniors who do drive, the reduced gas prices are better then a 1 or 2 percent

COLA.

[Hortensis]

7. True, although we drive less already, bundling errands, less

driving just for fun, to save money. It is what it is. I understand why.

[itsrobert]

2. Many Seniors stop driving

Food prices continue to rise. I see many seniors shopping at the 99 cent store because the regular supermarkets prices are too high.

[hobbit709]

3. Whoopdefuckingdo!

My cost of living isn't based on the price of gas. It's based on the cost of groceries and utilities.
This year's COLA was a giant $14/mo on my SS check.

[madamesilverspurs]

4. Maybe once we get repubs out of control of congress

we can get some reason applied to COLAs. For that matter, we could use some reason with regards to SS benefits in general. We often hear about "Grandma's $1000 SS check", but many of us receive far less than that. The last two COLAs for me were $12 and $13; not only insufficient to cover the cost of necessary OTC meds, the "raises" were eradicated by rent increases. It's already acknowledged that a serious percentage of seniors who rely on SS live at or below the poverty line; it's appalling, not to mention insulting, that such a sad reality has been continuously ignored and dismissed by those in position to improve the benefit schedule. Instead, they choose to cut collateral benefits (like SNAP) and whine about Grammy and Gramps bankrupting the country by getting what they've already paid for.

[1939]

6. Who is it that presents the data to Congress

on which the COLAs are based?

[Igel]

9. Nobody.

"The CPI-W is determined by the Bureau of Labor Statistics in the Department of Labor. By law, it is the official measure used by the Social Security Administration to calculate COLAs."

They're automatic. If data are presented to Congress, that's the extent of it. Data takes receipt of it and says, "Thanks." Done deal.

[moondust]

8. Law should be changed

to factor gas in less since seniors tend to drive less or not at all while their food, medical, insurance, and other expenses keep rising.

[Samantha]

11. Uncle Sam does not use the CPI-E (for elderly) when computing SS COLAs

The government knows what seniors purchase significantly differs from the purchases of younger people. The CPI-E factors into consideration the types of items seniors tend to buy. See the attached.

http://www.bls.gov/news.release/cpi.br12396.a06.htm

In addition to the official CPI's for the CPI-U and CPI-W populations, the CPI calculates an experimental price index for Americans 62 years of age or older. The Older Americans Act of 1987 directed the BLS to develop this experimental index.

A May 1994 Monthly Labor Review article by Nathan Amble and Kenneth J. Stewart, "Experimental Price Index for Elderly Consumers," detailed the methods, sources of data, and limitations of this experimental index series. It provided estimates of the series for all items and major CPI expenditure components from December 1982 through December 1993 and an analysis of price change measured by the experimental series during the 1987-93 period.

This needs to change.

Sam