华盛顿——2022年，数百万社保退休人员的福利将增加5.9%。随着经济努力摆脱冠状病毒大流行的拖累，通货膨胀率飙升，这是39年来最大的生活费调整。
根据社会保障管理局周三的估计，普通退休工人每月可获得92美元的额外收入。这是对长期通胀平静的突然打破，在过去10年里，生活成本调整平均每年只有1.65%。
随着这一增长，预计明年退休工人的平均社会保障付款将为每月1，657美元。一对典型夫妇的福利每月将增加154美元，达到2753美元。
但这只是为了帮助弥补受援国已经在为食品、汽油和其他商品和服务支付的不断上涨的成本。
退休人员克里夫·拉姆齐在谈到生活成本上涨时说:“这种情况发展得很快。在一家领先的钢铁制造商从事销售工作后，拉姆齐住在南卡罗来纳州希尔顿海德岛附近。他在家照顾他结婚近60年的妻子朱迪，她患有晚期老年痴呆症。自冠状病毒大流行以来，拉姆齐说，他还注意到支付给偶尔拼写他的护理人员的工资以及朱迪的个人护理产品的价格上涨。
可乐影响了大约五分之一美国人的家庭预算。这包括社会保障领取者、残疾退伍军人和联邦退休人员，总共近7000万人。对于在过去15年内开始退休的婴儿潮一代来说，这将是他们见过的最大增幅。
其中包括纽约皇后区的凯蒂·鲁德曼(Kitty Ruderman)，她从行政助理的职业退休，已经领取了大约10年的社会保障。她说:“我们每年都在等着听增长会是多少，每年都是如此微不足道。“谢天谢地，今年会有所不同。”
鲁德曼说，她为自己的杂货店购物计时，以利用周中老年人折扣，但即使如此，价格上涨也是“极端的”。她说她认为自己负担不起医生推荐的药物。
美国退休人员协会首席执行官乔·安·詹金斯称，政府支出的增加“对社会保障受益人及其家庭至关重要，因为他们试图跟上不断上涨的成本。”
政策制定者表示，这一调整是保护社会保障福利免受购买力损失的保障，而不是提高退休人员的工资。大约一半的老年人生活在社会保障提供至少50%收入的家庭中，四分之一的老年人依靠每月支付来获得全部或几乎全部收入。
“你永远不想低估可乐的重要性，”退休政策专家查尔斯·布莱克豪斯说，他是帮助监督社会保障和医疗保险财务的前公共受托人。“人们能够购买的东西会受到产品数量的深刻影响。在很多情况下，我们谈论的是生活的必需品。”
今年的社会保障受托人报告放大了对该计划长期财务稳定性的警告。但国会很少谈论修复措施，议员们被乔·拜登总统在国债问题上的大规模国内立法和党派阴谋所吞噬。社会保障不能通过民主党人试图用来兑现拜登承诺的预算和解程序来解决。
众议院社会保障小组委员会主席、立法解决短缺问题的作者、康涅狄格州众议员约翰·拉森(John Larson)说，社会保障的机会将会到来，这将使该计划在不到15年的时间里无法支付全部福利。他的法案将提高工资税，同时也改变了可乐的配方，以给予更多的权重卫生保健对老年人来说负担更重的费用和其他成本。拉森说他打算明年继续努力。
“这种一次性的可乐不是解药，”他说。
尽管拜登的国内一揽子计划包括大幅扩大医疗保险，以涵盖牙科、听力和视力保健，但拉森表示，他从选民那里听说，老年人感到被民主党忽视了。
“在市政厅和远程市政厅，他们说，‘我们对你在儿童税收抵免方面所做的非常满意，但是我们呢?’“拉森补充道。”期中考试选举，这是一个非常重要的选区。"
可乐只是老年人年度财务等式的一部分。预计很快会公布他们为门诊支付的医疗保险乙部分保费。这通常是一种增长，所以至少一些社会保障的增长会被医疗保健消耗掉。B部分保费现在是每月148.50美元，医疗保险受托人报告估计2022年将增加10美元。
经济学家玛丽莲·穆恩(Marilyn Moon)也是社会保障和医疗保险的公共受托人，她说，由于非常不寻常的经济环境，她认为目前的通胀飙升将是暂时的。
“我认为今年会有一个增长，这是你在未来看不到的，”穆恩说。
但她表示，政策制定者不应推迟着手退休计划。
她说:“我们正处于这样一个时刻，人们直到有一种绝望的感觉才会对政策需求做出反应，社会保障和医疗保险都是受益于长期规划而不是短期阴谋的项目。
社会保障的资金来自向工人及其雇主征收的工资税。每个人支付6.2%的工资，上限每年根据通货膨胀进行调整。明年，缴纳社会保障工资税的最高收入将增加到147，000美元。
该融资计划可追溯到20世纪30年代，是富兰克林·罗斯福总统的构想，他认为工资税将在普通美国人中培养一种主人翁意识，从而保护该计划免受政治干预。
这一论点仍然引起共鸣。“社会保障是我的生命线，”纽约退休人员鲁德曼说。“这是我们努力的目标。”
Social Security checks getting big boost as inflation rises
WASHINGTON -- Millions of retirees on Social Security will get a 5.9% boost in benefits for 2022. The biggest cost-of-living adjustment in 39 years follows a burst in inflation as the economy struggles to shake off the drag of the coronavirus pandemic.
The COLA, as it's commonly called, amounts to an added $92 a month for the average retired worker, according to estimates Wednesday from the Social Security Administration. It's an abrupt break from a long lull in inflation that saw cost-of-living adjustments averaging just 1.65% a year over the past 10 years.
With the increase, the estimated average Social Security payment for a retired worker will be $1,657 a month next year. A typical couple’s benefits would rise by $154 to $2,753 per month.
But that's just to help make up for rising costs that recipients are already paying for food, gasoline and other goods and services.
“It goes pretty quickly,” retiree Cliff Rumsey said of the cost-of-living increases. After a career in sales for a leading steel manufacturer, Rumsey lives near Hilton Head Island, South Carolina. He cares at home for his wife of nearly 60 years, Judy, who has advanced Alzheimer's disease. Since the coronavirus pandemic, Rumsey said he has also noted price increases for wages paid to caregivers who occasionally spell him and for personal care products for Judy.
The COLA affects household budgets for about 1 in 5 Americans. That includes Social Security recipients, disabled veterans and federal retirees, nearly 70 million people in all. For baby boomers who embarked on retirement within the past 15 years, it will be the biggest increase they've seen.
Among them is Kitty Ruderman of Queens in New York City, who retired from a career as an executive assistant and has been collecting Social Security for about 10 years. “We wait to hear every year what the increase is going to be, and every year it's been so insignificant,” she said. “This year, thank goodness, it will make a difference.”
Ruderman says she times her grocery shopping to take advantage of midweek senior citizen discounts, but even so price hikes have been “extreme.” She says she doesn't think she can afford a medication that her doctor has recommended.
AARP CEO Jo Ann Jenkins called the government payout increase “crucial for Social Security beneficiaries and their families as they try to keep up with rising costs.”
Policymakers say the adjustment is a safeguard to protect Social Security benefits against the loss of purchasing power, and not a pay bump for retirees. About half of seniors live in households where Social Security provides at least 50% of their income, and one-quarter rely on their monthly payment for all or nearly all their income.
“You never want to minimize the importance of the COLA,” said retirement policy expert Charles Blahous, a former public trustee helping to oversee Social Security and Medicare finances. “What people are able to purchase is very profoundly affected by the number that comes out. We are talking the necessities of living in many cases.”
This year’s Social Security trustees report amplified warnings about the long-range financial stability of the program. But there’s little talk about fixes in Congress, with lawmakers’ consumed by President Joe Biden’s massive domestic legislation and partisan machinations over the national debt. Social Security cannot be addressed through the budget reconciliation process Democrats are attempting to use to deliver Biden’s promises.
Social Security’s turn will come, said Rep. John Larson, D-Conn., chairman of the House Social Security subcommittee and author of legislation to tackle shortfalls that would leave the program unable to pay full benefits in less than 15 years. His bill would raise payroll taxes while also changing the COLA formula to give more weight tohealth careexpenses and other costs that weigh more heavily on the elderly. Larson said he intends to press ahead next year.
“This one-time shot of COLA is not the antidote,” he said.
Although Biden’s domestic package includes a major expansion of Medicare to cover dental, hearing and vision care, Larson said he hears from constituents that seniors are feeling neglected by the Democrats.
“In town halls and tele-town halls they’re saying, ‘We are really happy with what you did on the child tax credit, but what about us?’” Larson added. “In a midtermelection, this is a very important constituency.”
The COLA is only one part of the annual financial equation for seniors. An announcement about Medicare’s Part B premium they pay for outpatient care is expected soon. It’s usually an increase, so at least some of any Social Security raise gets eaten up by health care. The Part B premium is now $148.50 a month, and the Medicare trustees report estimated a $10 increase for 2022.
Economist Marilyn Moon, who also served as public trustee for Social Security and Medicare, said she believes the current spurt of inflation will be temporary, due to highly unusual economic circumstances.
“I would think there is going to be an increase this year that you won’t see reproduced in the future,” Moon said.
But policymakers should not delay getting to work on retirement programs, she said.
“We’re at a point in time where people don’t react to policy needs until there is a sense of desperation, and both Social Security and Medicare are programs that benefit from long-range planning rather short-range machinations,” she said.
Social Security is financed by payroll taxes collected from workers and their employers. Each pays 6.2% on wages up to a cap, which is adjusted each year for inflation. Next year the maximum amount of earnings subject to Social Security payroll taxes will increase to $147,000.
The financing scheme dates to the 1930s, the brainchild of President Franklin D. Roosevelt, who believed a payroll tax would foster among average Americans a sense of ownership that would protect the program from political interference.
That argument still resonates. “Social Security is my lifeline,” said Ruderman, the New York retiree. “It's what we've worked for.”
