While restricting a potential Part B spike in any given year is good news for beneficiaries, the problem itself isn't going away any time soon. "Unless Congress acts to boost Social Security benefits and finds a better way to adjust benefits for growing Medicare costs, this problem will continue occur with greater frequently in the future," says Johnson. "This approach of imposing future premium repayments doesn't fix the problem - it's like a payday loan. It just makes the premiums grow faster later, and the problem is triggered again the next time when COLAs are extremely low," Johnson says. The Senior Citizens League is working to get legislation introduced that would provide an emergency COLA of 3 percent in 202To learn more, visit..This year's study finds that Social Security benefits have lost 30 percent of buying power since the year 2000. This represents a 3-percentage point improvement in Social Security buying power from our 2019 study, which found a loss of 33 percent since 2000. While lower prices are good news in the short term, the deflationary trend suggests a very low COLA in 2021..Currently, because the Trust Funds are a part of the unified federal budget, Congress regularly uses the "excess funds" those not immediately needed for purposes other than to pay out benefits. TSCL believes that this practice is fundamentally unfair to current and future beneficiaries, and because both programs are facing insolvency within the next two decades, we believe it is now more important than ever for Congress to end the irresponsible practice. TSCL enthusiastically supports the Social Security and Medicare Lock-Box Act, and we look forward to working with Congressman Walberg in the coming months to help build support for it..This week, action on Capitol Hill was slow as Members of Congress remained in their home states and districts to prepare for the upcoming election. Lawmakers are expected to return to Capitol Hill on Tuesday, November 13th, to begin the lame-duck session..The sharp plunge was the result of changes that Congress made in 1977 to a Social Security benefit formula glitch that over-adjusted for inflation. At the time, Social Security actuaries forecast that if left unchanged, some groups of future retirees would receive benefits that would be even higher than their average earnings during their working years. Social Security was almost insolvent..Due to your income, you are subject to paying high income premium surcharges for both Part B and Part D drug coverage. The income brackets that determine the amount of your premiums have been adjusted for inflation this year after no adjustments in 2011 through 2019..The proposal to cut the growth of COLAs formed a major Social Security reform provision of President Obama's 2010 Fiscal Commission. It would reduce the growth rate in COLAs by switching to the more slowly-growing "chained" CPI. "The switch is insidious because it's enormously complicated to figure out, and it looks so small on paper - just 0.03 tenths of a percentage point," Hyland observes. "But the loss compounds over time. Within a decade it would have a significant financial punch that just keeps getting bigger," Hyland explains. The following chart provided by TSCL illustrates the impact of a chained CPI on a married couple's Social Security benefits, which start at a total of ,500 per month today, and how their benefits change over the first ten years. After ten years the chained CPI would reduce benefits by per month, and would cut benefits by ,488 over the ten-year period..TSCL is highly concerned that paying benefits based on illegal work rewards people for breaking the law while weakening program financing for people who paid into the system the legal way. Concerned about this issue? Sign a petition!.Gift certificates for home-heating oil are likely to be among the most appreciated gift you can give this holiday, says The Senior Citizens League. "That's because it will cost many Americans roughly 26 percent more to fill their home-heating fuel tanks this winter than last," says The Senior Citizens League's Social Security policy analyst Mary Johnson. "For people who rely on Social Security benefits, this will be a particularly challenging expense, since Social Security benefits are only increasing 2.8 percent in 2019," she explains.
