{"id":46367,"date":"2025-09-27T08:11:09","date_gmt":"2025-09-27T08:11:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/46367\/"},"modified":"2025-09-27T08:11:09","modified_gmt":"2025-09-27T08:11:09","slug":"social-security-covers-living-expenses-in-only-10-states-study-finds","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/46367\/","title":{"rendered":"Social Security covers living expenses in only 10 states, study finds"},"content":{"rendered":"

A new analysis by Realtor.com<\/a> has found that Social Security benefits alone are enough to cover living expenses in only 10 states.<\/p>\n

Outside of those 10 states, retirees face deficits of thousands of dollars when relying solely on Social Security benefits. <\/p>\n

Delaware tops the list with an annual surplus of $1,764, calculated by subtracting living costs from total Social Security payments. <\/p>\n

Indiana and Arizona follow, both with a surplus of more than $1,000. Indiana\u2019s surplus comes out at $1,392, while Arizona retirees\u2019 surplus is $1,224.<\/p>\n

The remaining states in the top 10 are Utah, South Carolina, West Virginia, Alabama, Nevada, Tennessee and Michigan. Michigan barely makes the list, with a $132 surplus.<\/p>\n

On the other end of the spectrum, Vermont is the worst state for living on Social Security benefits. Beneficiaries in the state face a deficit of $8,088 per year.<\/p>\n

Massachusetts is not far behind, ranking third in terms of benefit deficits. The annual deficit totals $7,345, based on a median monthly cost of $2,634. The monthly benefit falls short of that number at $2,022.<\/p>\n

Housing costs contribute significantly to the states with the highest deficits. In the 10 surplus states, retirees spend an average of $500 a month on housing expenses, whereas in the shortfall states, the average is nearly double the housing costs at $933 per month.<\/p>\n

The website conducted the analysis using the median Social Security benefits<\/a> by state and the Elder Economic Security Standard Index<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Every year, the Social Security Administration assesses a Cost of Living Adjustment<\/a> meant to adjust Social Security benefits to inflation \u2014 2026\u2019s COLA is set to be announced on Oct. 15. <\/p>\n

If you purchase a product or register for an account through a link on our site, we may receive compensation. By using this site, you consent to our User Agreement<\/a> and agree that your clicks, interactions, and personal information may be collected, recorded, and\/or stored by us and social media and other third-party partners in accordance with our Privacy Policy.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A new analysis by Realtor.com has found that Social Security benefits alone are enough to cover living expenses…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":46368,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[8383,72,176,61,60,34247,26327,174,175,1617],"class_list":{"0":"post-46367","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-personal-finance","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-business","10":"tag-finance","11":"tag-ie","12":"tag-ireland","13":"tag-old-age","14":"tag-older-americans","15":"tag-personal-finance","16":"tag-personalfinance","17":"tag-social-security-administration"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46367","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=46367"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46367\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/46368"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=46367"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=46367"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=46367"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}