Social Security: No Cost of Living Adjustment for 2016

SOCIAL SECURITY: Decision to freeze benefits angers Inland seniors

On October 15, 2015 by The Press Enterprise

Pat Kuhn didn’t exactly welcome Thursday’s announcement that millions of senior citizens won’t receive a boost in their Social Security checks next year.

“I think it’s a dirty rotten thing that they don’t help the elder citizens,” said Kuhn, 84, of Riverside while lunching at a senior center and rationing a half-pint carton of milk to save some for cereal the next morning.

“I do not think this is fair at all,” she said. “It’s embarrassing that they can’t think more of us than that.”

The news didn’t sit well with 83-year-old Lula Mae Clausell, either, when she heard it on television.

“They should give us a raise every year,” said Clausell. “We’re not getting enough as it is.”

Both Clausell and Kuhn are widows who say they depend solely on Social Security to make ends meet. Clausell receives $1,000 a month. Out of that, she said, she pays for utilities, buys food and sets money aside to cover the annual $1,400 property tax on her two-bedroom Riverside home.

“That’s what I live on,” she said.

And that’s what she will get in 2016.

Click here to read the complete story at the PE.com

Cost-of-Living Adjustment (COLA) Information for 2016

With consumer prices down over the past year, monthly Social Security and Supplemental Security Income (SSI) benefits for nearly 65 million Americans will not automatically increase in 2016.

Click here to learn more at SSA.gov