Use of a consumer price index (CPI) that does not reflect the costs experienced by retirees to calculate the annual cost of living adjustment (COLA) suppresses the amount of lifetime Social Security income received. It reduces your Social Security benefit payments by thousands of dollars over the course of a retirement. .The Senate was not in session and is scheduled to return on January 25th. .TSCL's Board of Trustees Visits Capitol Hill .According to the Social Security Handbook, when Social Security decides an overpayment has been made, a written notice will be sent to the overpaid individual or the legal representative (such as guardians or estates), if any. People other than the beneficiary can be liable for overpayments if they are entitled to benefits on the same earnings record, like widows, divorced widows, spouses, divorced spouses, and children. .Back in April the Social Security and Medicare Trustees released their reports with projections of the financial outlook of the programs. Those annual reports give the official government projections for the programs. It is important to note that the projections were made prior to the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic and therefore did not include the effects the pandemic has had on the economy and ultimately on the two programs. .Their bill would address the administrative funding challenges that the Social Security Administration has been facing for several years. Since 2010, the Social Security Administration's budget has declined by 9 percent, resulting in a loss of 10,000 employees and the closure of more than 10 percent of all field offices nationwide. At the same time, the number of Social Security beneficiaries has increased dramatically by 15 percent since 2010. .Just years before they were set to retire, these individuals learned that they would receive significantly lower benefits than originally anticipated. The problem has grown and compounded over time, and TSCL believes that in order to make the program more equitable, some compensation for the injustice should be provided. We enthusiastically support Rep. Meng's Notch Fairness Act, and we were pleased to see one new cosponsor sign on this week. .Former doughnut hole coverage gap: After spending the initial coverage amount of ,005, you are responsible for 25% co-insurance for both generic and brand name drugs, plus a portion of the pharmacy dispensing fee which is approximately $$Your drug plan pays 75% of the cost of generic drugs and 5% on brand-name drugs. The drug manufacturer provides a 70% discount on brand-name drugs. Your total costs in this stage could run as high as ,345 between the end of the Initial Coverage Period and the Catastrophic stage of coverage begins. Altogether, beneficiaries could be responsible for as much as ,350 in TrOOP, which includes the drug costs paid by the beneficiary and the 70% discount on brand-name drugs provided by the drug manufacturer. Payments made by the drug plan DO NOT count TrOOP costs. .In making the 1977 changes, Congress, wanting to avoid an abrupt change, allowed persons born from 1917 through 1921 to use a special transitional benefit formula or the new 1977 formula, whichever would yield the higher of the two benefits. The transition benefit formula never delivered the promised benefit protection, however, because it did not yield a higher benefit amount. Instead, the new benefit formula most often yielded the higher amount.