TSCL is working to convince Congress to enact a bill that provides an emergency COLA. The organization supports the Seniors and Veterans Emergency (SAVE) Benefits Act (S. 2251, H.R. 4144), which would provide Social Security beneficiaries with a one-time emergency COLA of 3.9 percent. For the average retiree, the emergency COLA would amount to around 0 dollars. To learn more, visit . .The Senior Citizens League enthusiastically supports the Social Security 2100 Act and we look forward to working with Congressman Larson in the 116th Congress to help build additional support for his critically important bill. For progress updates, follow The Senior Citizens League on Twitter or visit the Bill Tracking section of our website. .It's widely anticipated that benefits will be cut, perhaps significantly, for retirees at some point in the relatively near future, and that significantly higher taxes will be needed. In addition, this inconsistency between Social Security and immigration law suggests that newly work-authorized immigrants may benefit in the future, at least to some extent, at the expense of native-born U.S. workers and retirees who paid into the system legally over their entire working careers. ."If Congress adopts the more slowly-growing ?chained? CPI to calculate COLAs, that would cut the growth in average benefits, about ,100 per month today, by about ,742 over a 25-year retirement," states Larry Hyland, Chairman of TSCL. The benefit reductions compound over time, hitting the oldest the hardest. "By the time age 62 retirees with average benefits today reach age 84, their monthly benefits would be about 8 lower than they would receive using the current COLA methodology," Hyland says. .While that may solve one problem in trying to find the most affordable health care, it's not clear it will solve many others that still exist. .Talk with people at your local Area Agency on Aging or local senior services organizations. Find out about the senior housing options in your area, what they cost , and whether there are any charitable senior living programs that can help people like your mother until her home sells. .The Social Security Administration maintains a special Earnings Suspense File of wage reports that don't match the name and Social Security number of those in Social Security records. According to data from the Social Security Administration, an average of 9,762,500 wage reports per year with invalid names or Social Security numbers were received from 2000 through 2007 for an average of .68 billion in wages per year. That much in wages would be worth more than billion per year in Making Work Pay tax credits in 2009 and 2010 if those trends continue. .Research that I've conducted over more than 20 years indicates that retirees would receive a higher COLA in most years using a "seniors" CPI, rather than by using the current method of indexing which is based on the Consumer Price Index for Urban Wage Earners and Clerical Workers (CPI-W). One of the bigger problems with using the CPI-W is the fact that retirees spend their money very differently than younger working adults. Retirees must spend more on healthcare and housing, and less on gasoline and consumer electronics. .What are the waiting periods and exclusions? You can find dental plans that cover two cleanings and check-ups a year, but it's not uncommon for dental plans to require a year or two waiting period before covering basic fillings, or crowns and implants. Some plans will not cover pre-existing conditions, so if you are switching dentists and you are in the middle of getting bridge work done, the new dental plan may not cover prior dental work in progress.