10/31/2015 – Flat Social Security checks spark debate (USA Today)

Advocates for retirees cried foul after the government announced recently that Social Security recipients won’t be getting a cost-of-living increase next year because of falling prices, arguing officials aren’t considering their distinctive spending patterns.AARP and the Senior Citizens League said the Social Security Administration (SSA) instead should base its ruling on a special consumer price index for retirees that showed more rapid inflation the past year. Senior citizens, for example, devote more of their budgets to food, housing and medical care. Such a change would require legislation from Congress.But a study just out by the Center for Retirement Research at Boston College concludes that it’s unclear whether switching to that index would benefit the nation’s roughly 65 million Social Security recipients.

Read the full article in USA Today.