Expect small increase in Social Security benefits in 2013
Associated Press
WASHINGTON
Social Security recipients shouldn’t expect a big increase in monthly benefits come January.
Preliminary figures show the annual benefit boost will be between 1 percent and 2 percent, which would be among the lowest since automatic adjustments were adopted in 1975. Monthly benefits for retired workers now average $1,237, meaning the typical retiree can expect a raise of between $12 and $24 a month.
The size of the increase will be made official Tuesday, when the government releases inflation figures for September. The announcement is unlikely to please a big group of voters — 56 million people get benefits — just three weeks before elections for president and Congress.
The cost-of-living adjustment, or COLA, is tied to a government measure of inflation adopted by Congress in the 1970s. It shows that consumer prices have gone up by less than 2 percent in the past year.
“Basically, for the past 12 months, prices did not go up as rapidly as they did the year before,” said Polina Vlasenko, an economist at the American Institute for Economic Research, based in Great Barrington, Mass.
Comments
Are you kidding me? More Obamanomics, Gas, food, household items, insurance, healthcare, and your believing these lies. I'm OK, but there are many people hurting and this lying adminisration has the nerve to say inflation is only 1 to 2 percent. Of course when you buy food or cleaning supplies at the store they put less in the package and may keep the price from skyrocketing. This therefore does not count as inflation, the price stays the same, but the contents of the package is less. Go Mitt, our last hope to make this country great again.
coffee and cereal are perfect examples