Senior advocacy group wants to establish a 'minimum' annual COLA increase: How would it work? [View all]
Source: The Hill
10/24/25 3:30 PM ET
(NEXSTAR) – An advocacy group working to protect the benefits of America’s senior citizens is currently pushing for the Social Security Administration to establish a “minimum” annual cost-of-living adjustment (COLA) in the coming years. The Senior Citizens League, or TSCL, promoted its idea for a minimum annual COLA on Friday, shortly after the Social Security Administration (SSA) announced 2026’s official COLA increase to be 2.8%.
TSCL described 2026’s adjustment as only a “meager” increase over 2025’s COLA of 2.5%. “The 2026 COLA is going to hurt for seniors,” TSCL executive director Shannon Benton was quoted as saying in a Friday press release. “Year after year, they warn that Social Security’s meager increases won’t be enough, and the Census Bureau estimates that about 10 percent of retirement-age Americans live in poverty.”
The COLA, which is designed to help Social Security and Supplemental Security Income (SSI) beneficiaries retain their buying power amid rising inflation, is calculated using data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics — specifically the Consumer Price Index for Urban Wage Earners and Clerical Workers (CPI-W). But TSCL has long argued that the CPI-W does not reflect the expenses that seniors are paying for things like healthcare or housing.
In the past, TSCL has supported the idea of calculating each year’s COLA increase using not the CPI-W, but rather the Consumer Price Index for the Elderly (CPI-E) — which is “specifically based on the spending patterns of Americans 62 years of age and older,” the BLS says. Now, TSCL is also advocating for a system they call “CPI Best,” which means basing each year’s COLA increase on the highest of three options: the CPI-W, the CPI-E, or a minimum increase of 3%.
Read more: https://thehill.com/homenews/5572199-senior-advocacy-group-wants-to-establish-a-minimum-annual-cola-increase-how-would-it-work/
Link to The Senior Citizens League (TSCL) PRESS RELEASE - 2.8% – 2026 Cost of Living Adjustment
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