News

  • Benefit Bulletin February March 2018

    TSCL strongly supports legislation like the Notch Fairness Act that would provide Notch babies with modest compensation, and we were pleased to see support grow this week. .This week, The Senior Citizens League (TSCL) announced its support for new legislation that would strengthen and expand the Social Security program, and the federal government reopened after lawmakers and President Donald Trump approved a short-term continuing resolution (CR). .The payraise goes into effect automatically unless denied by legislation, or adjusted by a provision of law that prevents Congress from receiving a percentage of pay increase that would be greater than any payraise received by the General Schedule to federal workers. When Congress passed legislation in December of 2010 that froze the pay of federal workers through December 31, 2012, they effectively froze their own pay as well. No similar provision of law, however, prevents Congress from receiving a bigger COLA than seniors. The adjustment for Congress is not determined like the COLA for seniors, which is based on changes in consumer prices. Instead the Congressional COLA is based on changes in private sector wages and salaries as measured by the Employment Cost Index. Members of Congress were originally scheduled to receive a pay adjustment in January 2010, of 2.1%, and in 2011 of 0.9% had legislation not prohibited it. … Continued

  • What Seniors Think About Proposals To Fix Medicare

    That estimate is based on consumer price index (CPI) data through August, but it could significantly change with the September CPI data. Estimating the COLA this year has been far more challenging than in previous years due to the impact of hurricanes Harvey and Irma, which are affecting the prices of gasoline, food, housing and other costs. "We've got a hurricane wild card this year," Johnson says. "When the COLA is announced in October 13th, my 1.8 percent estimate could be off the mark," she says. "This is especially so when you take a look at what happened after Hurricane Katrina in 2005," Johnson notes. .TSCL will continue to keep the pressure up on Congress to get this problem solved as soon as possible. .If it seems too good to be true, it probably is. … Continued

TSCL is working for legislation that would provide an emergency COLA. The Seniors and Veterans Emergency (SAVE) Benefits Act (S. 2251, H.R. 4144) introduced by Senator Elizabeth Warren (MA) and Representative Tammy Duckworth (IL-8), 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 . .TSCL Delivers Petitions to Senate Leaders .Health care for seniors is also one of the top issues on our agenda at TSCL and we have been talking to Congressional offices about our concerns. That's why we were happy to see progress this week regarding the issue of surprise medical billing. Surprise billing has been a real problem for some seniors who have Medicare Advantage. It's an issue that TSCL has been discussing with Congress and that we've written about for the last few weeks. .Scrapping the Social Security payroll tax cap on the taxable wages would not only provide enough revenues to make the program solvent for another 50 years, but would also pay for a more fair and accurate cost-of-living adjustment (COLA) for current retirees. For example, say a CEO of a company receives million in compensation. That individual and the employer each pays 6.2% Social Security taxes on the first 8,500 in wages. Social Security receives a total of ,69But if the entire million were taxed, Social Security would receive 8,000 instead. .Sen. Sherrod Brown Introduces CPI-E Bill .But if your mom has lived with you some months already, you will need to determine if her former Medicare Advantage plan has already learned from CMS or the Postal Service of the move. If she moved over six months ago, then the plan should disenroll your mom 12 months after the move, but her Special Enrollment Period begins at the beginning of the sixth month and continues through the end of the eighth month after your move. .The sharp drop in benefits was unexpectedly steep and unduly harsh for those born from 1917 through 192According to economist Haldi, the decline in average benefit payments "was a highly unusual phenomenon, because benefits normally would be expected to increase slightly from one year to the next for people similarly situated. (7)" .Despite the big drop in costs related to petroleum prices, the overall costs typical of Social Security recipients continue to grow faster than benefits. Since 2000, the COLA has increased benefits just 43 percent while typical senior expenses have jumped 74 percent. Inflation has been at historic lows in recent years and seniors received a COLA of just 1.7 percent this year. .(Washington, DC) – Low inflation in recent years may be helping younger workers cut costs at the gas pump, but it isn't translating into lower costs for older and retired Americans, says The Senior Citizens League (TSCL). According to a recent study by TSCL, Social Security beneficiaries have lost 23 percent of their buying power since 2000. And another year of low cost-of-living adjustments (COLAs) is in store for 2017, according to a new TSCL analysis of consumer price index (CPI) data through August 2016.