Posted on 10/15/2015 7:57:23 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
WASHINGTON (AP) — There will be no benefit increase next year for millions of Social Security recipients, disabled veterans and federal retirees, the government said Thursday.
It's just the third time in 40 years that payments will remain flat. All three times have come since 2010.
And there's more bad news. The lack of a benefit increase means that many older people could face higher Medicare costs, an issue that has advocates lobbying Congress.
The main reason for no increase next year is low gas prices.
By law, the annual cost-of-living adjustment, or COLA, is based on a government measure of inflation. That gauge came out Thursday.
As of Wednesday, AAA said the average price of a gallon of regular gasoline was $2.30, about 90 cents less than it was a year ago.
"The big story has been the plunging gas prices," said Dean Baker, co-founder of the Center for Economic and Policy Research. "There's not a lot of inflation anywhere."
The announcement will affect benefits for more than 70 million people, more than one-fifth of the nation's population.
(Excerpt) Read more at usnews.com ...
prices falling?
Depression?
No money for me or thee, but we’ve got lots of money for the illegals and muslim invitees.
The truth is, in order to get things like universal health care and a revamped education system, then someone is going to have to give up a piece of their pie so that someone else can have more.
Michelle “Vacay” Obama
Or
The truth is, fellow peasants, in order to afford transforming our beloved country into a dangerous 3rd world ****hole, you are going to have to put off retirement & work a lot harder for a lot longer ... you didn’t (and won’t) earn it anyway.
Join AARP and vote Democrat! They’ll take care of you!
Not a Presidential Election Year. Obama is not running so there will be no automatic raise. Watch in 2016, there will be a substantial raise, because it will be Hillary and Biden vs Trump and Cruz.
The gutting of the middle class continues. The banks haven’t quite stolen everything yet. They’ll be going NIRP very soon. I expect them to hire shakers by the time they’re done; Big guys who’ll grab you by the ankles and shake you upside down to get the change out of your pockets.
Imagine if it was President Bush
never mind :-)
That’s right because while gasoline is flat all the rest of the prices paid are going up and up and up....
I thought that too so I did a little digging.
Seems that “Core Inflation” excludes food and energy. However, the COLA has always been calculated off the Consumer Price Index, which does include food and energy.
For a good explanation see http://inflationdata.com/articles/2008/02/24/what-is-core-inflation-and-why-doesnt-it-include-food-and-energy/
I too am confused . Now they base SS on gas prices being low, but don’t for inflation!
So if those who are old or disabled can’t drive then because of gas prices being lower then they see everything else go up except SS.
3 times in 40 years and all under this fairy boy, and yet if Bush had done this there would be an outcry from the AARP etc.
If Bush had done this the media and the groups like AARP would be talking about this non stop. This is their fairy boy though so it’s alright while money goes to illegals.
Great question. Where can we find that out?
Oh, great, one more year of eating dog food.
Does this mean that NO FEDERAL workers are getting raises?
http://www.forbes.com/sites/advisor/2015/10/15/rising-medicare-premiums-will-you-pay-more-in-2016/
I’ve been on it since January 2015. It seems they spend their time trying to find ways to take away what I get from SS for any reason they can. They really, really hate those of us out here who contributed the maximum SS OASDI payments (for me, as long as they put a cap on it) because the payout each month is too high in their estimation.
Their whole system was designed this way. they were going to shift resources to higher qaly score individuals.
Every Government employee and politician in office ought to be on Medicare.
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