Mark Miller: No Social Security Cost of Living Adjustment Is No Cause for Anger

For a second consecutive year, Social Security recipients won’t receive a cost-of-living adjustment (COLA) in 2011, according to the Social Security Administration. The news was widely anticipated. Social Security has had an automatic annual COLA feature since 1975, which is determined by the third quarter Consumer Price Index for Urban Wage Earners and Clerical Workers (CPI-W). In the third quarter of 2008 — just before the economy crashed — the CPI-W spiked temporarily, the result of a big increase in energy prices. The result was a whopping 5. 8 percent boost in Social Security benefits for 2009 — a raise that was especially generous considering the near-absence of inflation in the post-crash economy. Seniors on Social Security or disability benefits also received a one-time payment of $250 under the 2009 stimulus.
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