Just 10% of Seniors Are OK With Their Social Security Checks: Report

Even as inflation has moderated from the highs seen in 2022 and 2023, many senior citizens believe that their annual COLAs don’t reflect their spending realities. Indeed, prior research from The Senior Citizens League found that Social Security checks lost roughly 20% of their buying power between 2010 and 2024, even when accounting for the annual COLAs.

“Inadequate COLAs fail to keep up with inflation as seniors experience it,” the report suggests. “In particular, housing and transportation costs have increased faster than inflation over the last 15 years, which is especially difficult for seniors who rent their homes or live in areas with low walkability.”

Spending Experience

As the report recounts, the Social Security COLA is set each year by taking the average yearly change of the Consumer Price Index for Urban Wage Earners for July, August and September.

The index is a broad measure of inflation, the report notes, and last year it provided a COLA of 2.5% based on the CPI-W prints from the third quarter of 2024. According to the survey, most seniors believe that 2024 had much higher levels of inflation than the index reported.

When asked to estimate 2024’s inflation based on their personal economic experience, 79% of respondents said they thought that inflation was at 3% or higher. Nearly a third said they thought that inflation was running between 3% and 4.99%, while fully a quarter thought that it was 7% or higher.

“This suggests that seniors are still feeling the effects of high inflation from the early 2020s, which reached as high as 9% in June 2022,” the report states.

Given the mismatch in their perceptions of inflation and inflation as reported by the CPI-W, the report states, it’s “unsurprising” that seniors are worried about the value of their Social Security checks.

“The vast majority of respondents, 94%, said that they felt the 2025 COLA of 2.5% was too low and that their monthly Social Security checks would fall behind inflation,” the report warns. “Just 5% of respondents said they thought the 2024 COLA was fair, while 1% said they thought the 2024 COLA was too high.”

Wanted: Policy Action

Adding to seniors’ dissatisfaction with their monthly checks is their fear (well-founded or otherwise) that Social Security will not be reformed by Congress in a timely manner that avoids a significant benefit cut. Unless lawmakers act, this outcome is projected for sometime in the early to mid-2030s.

“Seniors overwhelmingly agree that the presidential administration and Congress should put Social Security and Medicare reform at the top of their agenda,” the report states. “Almost all (98%) agreed that updating the programs should be at least some level of priority for lawmakers, with 59% saying it should be a ‘top’ priority.”

When asked to pick just one item that they would prefer to see Congress and the administration prioritize for reform, choices related to Social Security broadly outperformed even those related to Medicare.

Specifically, seniors’ top priority for improving the programs is “updating Social Security’s COLAs,” selected by 34% of respondents. “Shoring up Social Security’s long-term finances” was the next-most popular choice, selected by 33% of respondents.

“Reducing waste in the Social Security and Medicare budgets came in a distant third place at 17%,” the report notes. “After that came reforming Medicare premiums, simplifying Medicare plan selection, and improving Medicare prescription drug access.”

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