{"id":249806,"date":"2025-10-25T01:46:07","date_gmt":"2025-10-25T01:46:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/249806\/"},"modified":"2025-10-25T01:46:07","modified_gmt":"2025-10-25T01:46:07","slug":"meager-2-8-social-security-boost-for-2026-sparks-outcry","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/249806\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Meager’ 2.8% Social Security boost for 2026 sparks outcry"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Social Security Administration\u2019s Friday announcement of a 2.8% bump in benefits next year<\/a> was immediately blasted by critics \u2014 who called the increase inadequate to keep up with soaring costs of food, housing and health care.<\/p>\n

The SSA said the adjustment, known as the cost-of-living adjustment, or COLA, will raise average monthly payments<\/a> to Social Security recipients by about $56 starting in January.<\/p>\n

The hike applies to retirement, disability and supplemental income checks for roughly 71 million Americans.<\/p>\n

\"SocialSocial Security recipients blasted the government Friday after officials announced that benefits will rise just 2.8% next year. zinkevych \u2013 stock.adobe.com<\/p>\n

The outcry was immediate. Senior groups said the increase was too small to offset real-world inflation pressures and accused Washington of ignoring retirees\u2019 financial struggles.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe 2026 COLA is going to hurt<\/a> for seniors,\u201d said Shannon Benton, executive director of the nonpartisan Senior Citizens League.<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cYear after year, they warn that Social Security\u2019s meager increases won\u2019t be enough.\u201d<\/p>\n

Benton said her group\u2019s research suggests that nearly one in ten retirement-age Americans lives in poverty \u2014 and that the true figure could be higher.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s about time our elected representatives show up for seniors, or else seniors won\u2019t show up for them at the voting booth,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\tCharlie Gasparino has his finger on the pulse of where business, politics and finance meet\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

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The modest increase came despite the Bureau of Labor Statistics reporting prices up 3% over the past year, fueled by stubborn housing and medical costs<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Analysts said the difference reflects how the government calculates the COLA<\/a> \u2014 based on the Consumer Price Index for Urban Wage Earners and Clerical Workers, or CPI-W \u2014 a formula critics say underestimates how inflation affects retirees.<\/p>\n

Older Americans spend more on health care and essentials that rise faster than average inflation, Benton said, arguing for a switch to the CPI-E, a measure designed to capture seniors\u2019 spending habits.<\/p>\n

Her group also called for a minimum 3% annual adjustment.<\/p>\n

\"TheThe Social Security Administration said the adjustment, known as the cost-of-living adjustment, or COLA, will raise average monthly payments by about $56 starting in January. mehaniq41 \u2013 stock.adobe.com<\/p>\n

Social Security Commissioner Frank Bisignano defended the calculation, saying the annual adjustment<\/a> \u201cis one way we are working to make sure benefits reflect today\u2019s economic realities and continue to provide a foundation of security.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bisignano\u2019s agency had delayed the announcement by more than a week because of the government shutdown that stalled September inflation data.<\/a><\/p>\n

The Bureau of Labor Statistics recalled furloughed workers to finish the report and allow the COLA release to move forward.<\/p>\n

The announcement lands as Social Security faces deeper financial strains.<\/p>\n

Earlier forecasts warn the retirement trust fund could be depleted within seven years<\/a>, forcing automatic benefit cuts of as much as 24% if Congress fails to act.<\/p>\n

Economists said the 2.8% raise roughly matches average COLAs over the past decade, which have averaged 3.1%, but doesn\u2019t reflect how sharply costs have risen for retirees in recent years.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Social Security Administration\u2019s Friday announcement of a 2.8% bump in benefits next year was immediately blasted by…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":249807,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[39],"tags":[28,2402,147,530,5599,733,194],"class_list":["post-249806","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-personal-finance","tag-business","tag-inflation","tag-personal-finance","tag-personalfinance","tag-public-health","tag-social-security","tag-us-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/249806","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=249806"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/249806\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/249807"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=249806"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=249806"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=249806"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}