For the 70 million Americans who receive Social Security, experts say the significant increase in benefits slated for 2023 is much-anticipated and much-welcomed.
According to reports, tens of millions of elderly Americans are about to get what may be the biggest raise of their lifetimes.
On Thursday, the U.S. government is set to announce how big a percentage increase Social Security beneficiaries will see in monthly payments this upcoming year. It’s virtually certain to be the largest in four decades. It’s all part of an annual ritual where Washington adjusts Social Security benefits to keep up with inflation, or at least with one narrow measure of it.
It only proves that Biden’s inflation is way higher than we taught…and should we be expecting another wave of inflation?
Amid record-high inflation, Social Security beneficiaries will get an 8.7% increase in their benefits in 2023, the highest increase in 40 years. It will result in a benefit increase of more than $140 per month on average starting in January.
Joe Biden’s terrible economy reflects the struggles that seniors are facing right now.
Here’s an informative piece from ‘The Washington Times’ on this recent move for higher benefits. Here are some highlights:
WHAT’S THE BIG DEAL?
The U.S. government is about to announce an increase to how much the more than 65 million Social Security beneficiaries will get every month. Some estimates say the boost may be as big as 9%.
WHAT DO BENEFICIARIES HAVE TO DO TO GET IT?
Nothing.
WILL THIS BE THE BIGGEST INCREASE EVER?
No, but it’s likely the heftiest in 40 years, which is longer than the vast majority of Social Security beneficiaries have been getting payments. In 1981, the increase was 11.2%.
WHEN WILL THE BIGGER PAYMENTS BEGIN?
January. They’re also permanent, and they compound. That means the following year’s percentage increase, whatever it ends up being, will be on top of the new, larger payment beneficiaries get after this most recent raise.
HOW BIG WAS THIS PAST YEAR’S INCREASE?
5.9%, which itself was the biggest in nearly four decades.
WHAT’S THE TYPICAL INCREASE?
Since 2000, it’s averaged 2.3% as inflation remained remarkably tame through all kinds of economic swings. During some of the toughest years in that stretch, the bigger worry for the economy was actually that inflation was running too low.
Since the 2008 financial crisis, the U.S. government has announced zero increases to Social Security benefits three times because inflation was so weak.
SO THE INCREASE IS TO MAKE UP FOR INFLATION?
That’s the intent. As Americans have become painfully aware over the past year, each $1 doesn’t go as far at the grocery store as it used to.
HAS SOCIAL SECURITY ALWAYS GIVEN SUCH INCREASES?
No. The first American to get a monthly retirement check from Social Security, Ida May Fuller from Ludlow, Vermont, got the same $22.54 monthly benefit for 10 years.
Automatic annual cost-of-living adjustments didn’t begin for Social Security until 1975, after a law passed in 1972 requiring them.
HOW IS THE SIZE OF THE INCREASE SET?
It’s tied to a measure of inflation called the CPI-W index, which tracks what kinds of prices are being paid by urban wage earners and clerical workers.
More specifically, the increase is based on how much the CPI-W increases from the summer of one year to the next.
For more info, please read the original piece HERE.
Watch the video report below for more details:
Sources: WayneDupree, The Washington Times
