NATIONAL BRIEFING / WASHINGTON, D.C.
The recession is projected to wipe out annual cost-of-living increases for 50 million Social Security beneficiaries for the next three years, something that hasn’t happened since automatic adjustments were adopted in 1975.
The Congressional Budget Office says in its latest budget estimates that inflation will dip so low that Social Security recipients will not qualify for annual increases in 2010, or for two years after that.
If the projections hold true, Social Security recipients would forgo a total of $378 billion in increased payments through 2019, according to the CBO estimates.
The Social Security Administration will set next year’s cost-of-living adjustment in October, based on inflation over the previous year.
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