Social Security's scheduled cost of living increase 'won't make a dent' for some retirees

[MichMan]

5. Some believe the Federal government is using the wrong COLA for SS

The Senior Citizens League’s model predicts the increase will be 2.5 percent. But the government formula doesn’t adequately account for rising health-care costs, which is one of the most significant expenses for retired workers, according to Shannon Benton, the league’s executive director.

Benton said Congress should tie the Social Security COLAs to the consumer price index for the elderly, or R-CPI-E, which measures the spending habits of Americans 62 and older, including health care.

“The way that seniors spend is not taken into consideration, and their spending habits are not weighted as heavily as they should,” Benton said. “While the CPI-E doesn’t always result in a higher COLA, it does so most of the time.”

The experimental COLA based on the R-CPI-E would have met or surpassed the CPI-W COLA in all but six years since 1986 — specifically in 2005, 2008, 2011, 2018, 2021 and 2022, Benton pointed out.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/retirement/social-security-payments-aren-t-rising-fast-enough-for-most-seniors/ar-AA1rXhhX?ocid=BingNewsSerp