Social Security benefits for seniors will rise 2.8 percent in 2026, agency officials announced Friday.
Starting in January, the average monthly check for the nearly 71 million Social Security recipients will be around $2,064, up $56 from this year.
The cost-of-living adjustment, or COLA, is an annual uplift to payments which is designed to keep up with inflation.
However, senior advocates are warning that the 'meager' payment increase will not be enough to help older Americans struggling with rising prices.
Year after year, seniors warn that Social Security's meager increases will not be enough, Benton continued, and the Census Bureau estimates that about 10 percent of retirement-age Americans live in poverty.
'However, our research suggests that the number may be higher. It's about time our elected representatives show up for seniors, or else seniors won't show up for them at the voting booth.'
However, TSCL argues that this measure does not take in the reality of how seniors experience inflation.
The group said that many retirees find that their monthly checks fall behind inflation, and suggested the government use a different measure to calculate the increase, or set a minimum COLA increase of 3 percent.
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