Social Security recipients may get biggest cost-of-living bump in almost 40 years
CBSN
The 69 million Americans who collect Social Security are on track to get the biggest cost-of-living hike since 1983, with one advocacy group for senior citizens projecting a 6.1% increase to benefits due to surging inflation.
The bad news: Recipients will have to wait for that bump because the Social Security Administration adjusts its payments only once a year, starting with December benefits that are paid in January. That means seniors and other Social Security beneficiaries wouldn't receive a cost-of-living adjustment (COLA) until January 2022. In the meantime, prices for everything from gas to groceries are rising at a time when Social Security recipients got what was among the meagerest of COLA adjustments in recent years — a 1.3% increase for 2021. As the pandemic eases, a rapid reopening of the economy is fueling pent-up spending for goods and services that in many cases remain in short supply, prompting inflation to jump 5.4% in June compared with a year earlier.Authorities made two gruesome discoveries Tuesday after a Missouri woman walked into a police station and told officers that she fatally shot one of her children and drowned the other, officials said. Jefferson County Sheriff Dave Marshak said at a news conference that authorities believe both children were killed Tuesday morning.
Strong storms with damaging winds and baseball-sized hail pummeled Texas on Tuesday, leaving more than one million businesses and homes without power as much of the U.S. recovered from severe weather, including tornadoes, that killed at least 24 people in seven states during the Memorial Day holiday weekend.