By Mary Johnson, editor Impute. Today’s word comes to us from the economists at the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). Since March of this year, they have been forced to use this estimation technique much more f ...
Category: Issues
How Does the High Unemployment Affect Social Security’s Solvency?
Social Security’s finances depend largely on payroll taxes, tying the strength of Social Security to the strength of the U.S. economy. The U.S. unemployment rate was more than 13.3% through May. That was worse than the ...
Q & A: July 2020
What Should I Do? I Lost My Job And Health Insurance. Q: The company that I worked for shut down in March because of the coronavirus, and I did not get my job back. I lost my paycheck and my health insurance. I’m ...
No COLA Expected For Next Year
By Mary Johnson, editor The coronavirus is creating especially challenging long-term impacts for the nation’s retirees. Coronavirus - caused deflation will likely obliterate the Social Security cost-of-living adjustm ...
Deflation Signals Zero COLA For 2021, Benefits Lose 30% Of Buying Power
Social Security benefits have lost 30 percent of buying power since 2000. These are the findings of an annual TSCL study that examines the adequacy of Social Security benefits in keeping up with the rising costs typical ...
Q & A: June 2020
Should She Sign Up For Unemployment or Disability? Q: My mom has Parkinson’s disease, but was still working until the coronavirus forced her company to shut down indefinitely. She has applied for partial unemployment ...
Benefit Bulletin: June 2020
Medicare Premiums Could Spike Due to Coronavirus By Rick Delaney The coronavirus has hit older Americans particularly hard and sent tens of thousands of Medicare recipients to hospital emergency rooms and intensive ...
What Are Your Fastest Rising Costs?
Mary Johnson, editor Every year, I take a look at how the Social Security cost of living adjustment (COLA) compares with the rise in average retiree costs. Data that I collect for my report on the buying power of Soc ...
A Coronavirus Caused Recession Could Eliminate Next Year’s COLA
Older Americans have the highest health risk from the coronavirus and now the coronavirus-caused economic recession, along with falling oil prices, put the next Social Security cost-of-living adjustment (COLA) in jeopard ...
How the Corona Virus Affects Social Security
The abrupt and severe contraction in the U.S. economy caused by the coronavirus has far-reaching consequences for Social Security. Twenty million workers filed claims for unemployment between March 15, 2020 and April 17 ...
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