Following the Social Security Administration’s announcement of a “meager” 1.3% cost-of-living adjustment (COLA) for Social Security beneficiaries in 2021, Reps. Peter DeFazio, D-Ore., and John Larson, D-Conn., proposed emergency legislation in October to increase the 2021 COLA to 3%. Congress has yet to act on the bill, however, even though Democrats control the House.
“Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, seniors are facing additional financial burdens in order to stay safe,” DeFazio said in a statement. “This absolutely anemic COLA won’t even come close to helping them afford even their everyday expenses, let alone those exacerbated by COVID-19. Raising the COLA to 3% for 2021 will provide seniors with an immediate, crucial lifeline during the ongoing coronavirus crisis.”
“Social Security is our country’s number one financial security program, and, because of the COVID-19 pandemic, people are depending on it now more than ever,” Larson added. “Seniors are seeing a rise in food, medical, housing costs and more, and a 1.3% cost of living adjustment (COLA) is just not enough during these difficult times.”
Both mentioned their sponsorship of the Social Security Expansion Act, “to increase benefits and use a new COLA index (CPI-E) to factor in seniors’ actual, everyday expenses.”
Downward COLA trend
According to The Senior Citizens League, COLAs averaged 3 percent between 1999 and 2009. Over the past decade, however, annual COLAs have averaged just 1.4%. Of the years in which the Social Security COLA has been increased, 1.3% is the second-lowest.
“The COVID pandemic has devastated many older Americans both physically and financially. Seniors living on fixed incomes need a lifeboat; this COLA increase is more like an underinflated inner tube,” said Max Richtman, president and CEO of the National Committee to Preserve Social Security and Medicare. “We strongly support Rep. Peter DeFazio’s bill to provide an emergency 3% Social Security COLA for 2021, due to the extraordinary challenges seniors face during the COVID pandemic.”