The cost-of-living, or COLA, for retirees translates to an average increase of just $50 for retirees every month, agency officials said.
But even before the announcement, retirees voiced concern that the increase would not be enough to counter rising costs for such basic things as groceries which have seen about a 20-percent increase in recent years.
Sherri Myers, an 82-year-old retiree from Pensacola City, Florida, is now hoping to get an hourly job at Walmart to help make ends meet.
“I would like to eat good but I can’t. When I’m at the grocery store, I just walk past the vegetables because they are too expensive. I have to be very selective about what I eat — even McDonald’s is expensive,” she said.
Social Security Commissioner Martin O’Malley says his message for those who feel that the adjustment is not enough: “They’re not wrong.”
”I’ve heard the stories and it is a struggle for seniors," he said, adding that "in their older years, they have to spend their money on a different array of costs and expenses, including prescription drugs.”
O’Malley said there is a push for the Social Security Administration to use a different index to calculate the cost-of-living increase that measures price changes based on the spending patterns of older people on things such as health care, food and medicine costs.
The COLA is now calculated according to the Consumer Price Index, a market basket of consumer goods and services. O’Malley said lawmakers who are advocating for a shift “are advancing a very sound policy.”
