By Leada Gore
al.com
(TNS)
Too low, too late.
That’s the assessment of Social Security’s new cost-of-living adjustment announced last week by the Social Security Administration. The 3.6% boost will increase the average retired worker’s monthly payment by $75 from $2,087 to $2,162, effective Jan. 1.
And while this year’s increase is the highest since 2023, when inflation reached 8.7%, experts at nonpartisan advocacy group The Senior Citizens League said the money won’t go far enough to help retirees.
“Another year, another COLA that falls short of expectations. Seniors will find themselves disappointed … when they look up the COLA announcement in the news. The reality is that millions depend on Social Security to retire with dignity, and (the COLA) announcement puts that ideal in jeopardy for millions,” TSCL Executive Director Shannon Benton said in a statement.
Benton said the seniors tell her group they don’t feel like COLA reflects inflation as they experience it. In a 2026 survey, 89 percent of respondents said they felt the last COLA was too low and their benefits would fall behind inflation. In the 2025 Senior Survey, that figure was 94 percent.
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This year’s increase was also too late, Benton said. Seniors won’t see any COLA-related changes to their benefit checks until Jan. 1, but the inflation the increase is supposed to account for already occurred. Seniors have had to endure elevated prices for months without any additional financial resources, TSCL said, and COLA doesn’t address those losses.
“When inflation spikes due to a geopolitical event like the Iran war, seniors pay the price. Prices go up today, but benefits stay the same for months due to an outdated COLA methodology. Working people can request a raise or seek a higher-paying position, but seniors have to make lifestyle cuts or drain their savings until the next COLA,” Benton said.
Social Security calculates the annual COLA by taking the average yearly change of the Consumer Price Index for Urban Wage Earners and Clerical Workers, or CPI-W, for July, August and September and comparing it to the same period the previous year. The CPI-W yearly change was 3.4 percent in July, 3.5 percent in August, and 3.9 percent in September.
TSCL and other advocacy groups have long pushed for a change in methodology to reflect a more accurate COLA.
“Congress cannot control every price increase, but it can act to ensure that the COLA formula does not leave people behind,” Benton said. “The people who depend on these benefits cannot afford another year of empty promises, inadequate adjustments, and shrinking purchasing power. They deserve more than a cost-of-living adjustment on paper; they deserve one that works in real life.”
TSCL backs the use of the CPI-E, the Consumer Price Index for the Elderly, which gives heavier weight to expenses that disproportionately impact older Americans, such as medical and prescription drug costs and housing.
Photo credit: Office of Illinois Congressman Eric Sorensen
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