Diminishing Value of Social Security Benefits

This article is about a study that concludes Social Security benefits currently buy 34% less than they did in 2000. This annual study from an advocacy group purports to re-arrange the basket of goods and services that are used to compute the Consumer Price Index so that it better reflects the purchases made by seniors. It finds that this basket of goods has increased in cost faster than the regular CPI.

While COLA increases since 2000 cumulatively have equaled 46 percent — matching inflation over those years — typical retiree expenses grew by 96.3 percent, the study shows. Of the 39 costs analyzed in the report, 26 grew faster than the percentage increase in COLAs from 2000 to 2018.