Inflation could mean highest Social Security cost-of-living adjustment since 1981 – By Megan Henney (FOX Business) / June 13, 2022
Social Security recipients have lost 40% of their buying power since 2000
Social Security recipients are on track to receive the biggest cost-of-living raise in four decades as white-hot inflation rapidly shrinks the buying power of retired Americans.
The Senior Citizens League, a nonpartisan group that focuses on issues relating to older Americans, estimated the adjustment could be as high as 8.6%, based on May inflation data, which showed that consumer prices soared 8.6% from the previous year, the fastest year-over-year jump since December 1981.
The annual Social Security change is calculated based on the Consumer Price Index for Urban Wage Earners and Clerical Workers, or the CPI-W, which jumped 8.6% over the past year.
Should Social Security beneficiaries see an 8.6% increase to their monthly checks next year, it would mark the steepest annual adjustment since 1981, when recipients saw an 11.2% bump. The COLA prediction for 2023 from the Senior Citizens League previously is unchanged from April.
