{"id":433429,"date":"2026-10-20T22:44:07","date_gmt":"2026-10-20T22:44:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/433429\/"},"modified":"2026-10-20T22:44:07","modified_gmt":"2026-10-20T22:44:07","slug":"st-pete-seniors-say-social-security-increase-may-not-help","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/433429\/","title":{"rendered":"St. Pete seniors say Social Security increase may not help"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. \u2014 Social Security benefits will increase by 3.6% in 2027, according to the Social Security Administration, but some St. Petersburg seniors say the adjustment will not be enough to keep up with rising costs.<\/p>\n<p>AARP says more than 5 million Floridians receive Social Security. The organization said the increase is welcome news, but its polling shows most seniors feel they would need a 5% to 7% increase to keep up with inflation.<\/p>\n<p>At the Sunshine Senior Center, seniors gather most days of the week to see friends and get a meal from Neighborly Senior Care Network.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s a meal, it\u2019s also socialization, which is very important when you age,\u201d said Patience Summers,<\/p>\n<p>Summers is a senior who depends on Social Security.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAs older adults, we\u2019ve paid into it, some of us since high school,\u201d Summers said. \u201cWe paid it our whole life.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The Social Security Administration has made cost-of-living adjustments for benefits every year <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ssa.gov\/oact\/cola\/colaseries.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">since 1975<\/a>. The 2027 increase is slightly above average and is the largest since 2023, but Summers said the added money isn&#8217;t enough.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cEspecially with gas prices, the cost of food. I\u2019m blessed because I own my own home,\u201d Summers said. \u201cBut the upkeep I can no longer afford with utilities rising, food rising, insurance rising, and that\u2019s really sad.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Other St. Petersburg retirees said the average increase of $75 a month should be larger, though Jerry Perry said the change is still an improvement.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019m on a fixed income,\u201d Perry said. \u201cWhen they say fixed income, they mean that because I had enough to pay rent, couple bills, and I got, like, very little left.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Michael Coon, an associate professor of economics at the University of Tampa, said cost-of-living adjustments tend to track with inflation, but the adjustment is one year behind.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSo anytime we do the cost-of-living adjustment, it\u2019s catching up to what has already happened,\u201d Coon said. \u201cWhen inflation rates are stable and predictable, it\u2019s easier for senior citizens to budget for that.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Summers said the Sunshine Senior Center helps her make ends meet, but she hopes more people recognize the financial pressure many seniors face.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHopefully, I think people will open their eyes and see that seniors, we put in our time,\u201d Summers said. \u201cWe deserve more, we deserve better.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. \u2014 Social Security benefits will increase by 3.6% in 2027, according to the Social Security&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":433430,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[115,596,202,204,203,199,201,200,135,1374,835],"class_list":["post-433429","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-st-petersburg","tag-news","tag-pinellas-county","tag-st-pete","tag-st-pete-headlines","tag-st-pete-news","tag-st-petersburg","tag-st-petersburg-headlines","tag-st-petersburg-news","tag-tampa","tag-tyler-oneill","tag-vod"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/433429","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=433429"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/433429\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/433430"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=433429"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=433429"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=433429"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}