Statement on Social Security COLA

Statement

Rep. Charles A. Gonzalez released the following statement on the announcement from the Social Security Administration that there would be a 3.6% Cost-of-Living Adjustment (COLA) in 2012, the first increase in two years.

"The announcement of this increase in Social Security benefits in 2012 will come as very welcome news for San Antonio's seniors," said Rep. Gonzalez. "The costs that they face, for things like health care, rise more rapidly than any other, so the lack of COLA has meant de facto benefit cuts over the past two years. While I introduced legislation that would fix this problem once and for all, this vital program and its promise of a secure old age must be protected."

Social Security kept 13.8 million seniors and 1.1 million children out of poverty last year, many of them in Texas. Rep. Gonzalez introduced the Consumer Price Index for Elderly Consumers Act of 2011 (H.R. 456) earlier this year. His bill would ensure that the Social Security COLA was calculated based on actual costs faced by Social Security recipients. Under the current model, of 18 categories of spending from transportation to tobacco, in only five, e.g., housing and shelter, are seniors within 10% of the average worker on whose costs the COLA is calculated. The average difference is 34%.

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