Social Security: No cost of living adjustment next year

Social Security trustees have announced that, for the first time in the history of the entitlement program’s cost of living adjustments, there will be no increase in benefits for 2010. This comes on the heels of news from the Treasury Department that Social Security will become insolvent four years earlier than projected.

“Today we learned that retirees will receive a stagnant, if not diminished, benefit check beginning next year,” said IRI president Cathy Weatherford. “Since 1975, COLA increases have come to be relied on to help offset the rising costs of essential items, creating a situation where millions of retirees have come to primarily rely on their Social Security checks for guaranteed income each month. Today, we see that guarantee eroding,” said Weatherford.