No Social Security increase?

Area seniors are concerned about news there will be no cost of living increase in their Social Security payments next year. On Tuesday, Norma DeRose (from left) Evelyn Fox, Claretta Leuchtenberg, Richard Lauritzen, Karen Huskey, Toni Miller and Bernice Pettit gathered at the Senior Service Center in Princeton to share their concerns about how the lack of an increase will affect them and other area seniors. (BCR photo/Barb Kromphardt)

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PRINCETON — The first rumblings about the possibility of no cost of living increase for Social Security recipients in 2010 first began to be heard last year, and now July’s Consumer Price Index seems to have cemented the deal.

January’s checks won’t be any bigger than December’s checks, and for some people, they might be even smaller.

Annual cost of living adjustments are tied to inflation, which has been negative this year, mostly because of the drop in energy prices. By law, Social Security benefits cannot go down, but with no inflation, there’s also no cost of living increase, not in 2010, or maybe even 2011 and 2012. This would be the first time such an event has occurred since the automatic increases were adopted in 1975.

On Tuesday, a group of Princeton seniors gathered at the Senior Service Center to talk about what the lack of an increase could mean for them.

“My first thought was, ‘Wow, am I going to have to cut back,’” Evelyn Fox said. “I know everything keeps going up, though.”

Claretta Leuchtenberg agreed.

“They say there’s no inflation, but gas keeps going up and groceries keep going up,” she said. “Our utilities are going up, here in Princeton, anyway.”

Bernice Pettit was also in agreement.

“Even though we aren’t going to get any more Social Security next year, everything else is going to go up,” she said. “I’ve always felt like when Social Security went up a little bit, then everybody thought everything else had to go up a little bit, too, and you didn’t end with any more spendable income than you did before.”

Karen Huskey, information and assistance specialist with the Center, had at least one piece of good news for the seniors. Huskey said there was some question whether the premium for Medicare Part B, which covers everything except hospitalization and prescription drugs, might still be going up. Huskey said she had looked into the issue, and the law requires any increase cannot be larger than the increase in Social Security benefits for most recipients.

However, there was no good news about the premium most seniors pay for a Medicare Supplement Plan, which seemed to be the seniors’ biggest concern.

“They say there’s no inflation, but I bet you when this fall comes and my Medicare supplement insurance bill comes through, they’ll be raising it way up like they did last time,” Richard Lauritzen said. “Mine went up $35 a month last fall, and this is going to make it harder.”

The seniors were in agreement that everyone had to have the supplement, which costs about $150 but can run as high as $400 every month.

“My pacemaker was over $60,000 I just had put in,” Lauritzen said. “I couldn’t afford that kind of stuff.”

The seniors were able to find a couple of positives in the situation.

“People who are in low-income housing, such as myself, we’re affected every time we have a raise,” Toni Miller said. “Each time there is a cost of living raise on our Social Security, we have to pay 30 percent of that for our rent. This time we will not have our rent raised.”

While the seniors all agreed they would like to see some kind of cost of living increase, at least one was philosophical.

“The way our world is right now, we all have to have some kind of sacrifice,” Pettit said. “We can’t continue to live the way we’ve been living when how many trillions of dollars we’re already in debt. It trickles down to us, too, so some of us are going to have to make some changes, too. We can’t keep going the way we’ve been going the last few years.”

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