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October 11, 2019 T: 582-7800 | F: 582-7044 www.arubatoday.com
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Aruba’s ONLY English newspaper
Retiree checks to rise modestly amid push to expand benefits By RICARDO ALONSO-ZALDIVAR Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — Millions of retirees will get a modest 1.6% cost-of-living increase from Social Security in 2020, an uptick with potential political consequences in an election year when Democrats are pushing more generous inflation protection. The increase amounts to $24 a month for the average retired worker, according to estimates released Thursday by the Social Security Administration. Following a significant boost this year, the cost-ofliving adjustment, or COLA, for 2020 reverts to its pattern of moderate gains. But seniors and advocates complain that the inflation yardstick used to determine the annual adjustment doesn't adequately reflect their costs, mainly for health care. The COLA affects household budgets for about 1 in 5 Americans, nearly 70 million people, and that includes Social Security recipients, disabled veterans and federal retirees. Criticism of the COLA for-
WELL ADJUSTED
In this Oct. 9, 2019 photo, Joe Schiavone, 81, is seen in his yard in West Melbourne, Fla.
mula has been amplified by Democratic presidential candidates and congressional Democrats. That’s helped to shift the Social Security debate from a
near-exclusive concern with the program’s solvency to a focus on expanding benefits, including but not limited to the cost-ofliving adjustment. ”Most of
the discussion about Social Security is about how can we promise more rather than how can we keep the promises we’re already making,” said conservative
Associated Press
retirement policy expert Charles Blahous, who as a former public trustee of Social Security once helped oversee its finances.
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