‘I’m down to eating ramen’: Social Security benefits aren’t keeping up with inflation

(CNN) — Until last year, Janet Albrecht could afford to eat roast beef sandwiches or tuna salad for lunch. But the widowed 78-year-old now has to skimp on her meals because her Social Security benefits haven’t kept up with the rising costs for food, housing and health care in recent years.

A retired graphic designer, Albrecht estimates she’s paying $100 more a month at the supermarket than she was before inflation started skyrocketing in 2021. Her landlord increased the monthly rent by a total of $65 over the past two years, her utility bills are larger and some of the seven medications she takes daily after suffering a heart attack have gotten more expensive. She hasn’t had a haircut in more than a year, though she doesn’t like to wear her hair so long.

“I’m down to eating ramen for lunch, which I never ate in my life until recently,” said Albrecht, an Indiana, Pennsylvania, resident, who relies primarily on $1,163 in monthly Social Security payments. “If it’s not marked down, I just don’t eat it. I haven’t eaten beef since I don’t know when. I can’t afford it.”

Many other senior citizens are also feeling the inflation squeeze. Social Security benefits have lost 20% of their buying power since 2010, according to a recent analysis by The Senior Citizens League, an advocacy group. Those who retired that year would need a boost of $370 a month, or $4,440 a year, on average, to regain the lost value.

Put another way, every $100 a household spent in 2010 would only purchase $80 today.

Every January, Social Security recipients get an annual cost-of-living adjustment, known as a COLA, but the increases often don’t keep up with the actual rise in prices – hurting senior citizens, many of whom live on fixed incomes and depend heavily on their Social Security benefits. Eight of the last 15 adjustments have come in lower than inflation for that year.

Social Security benefits have risen by 58% between 2010 and 2024, but the cost of goods and services purchased by typical retirees jumped 73% during that time, the league said. The prices of bread and ground beef, for instance, have shot up nearly 147% and 73%, respectively, over that period.

The surge in inflation in recent years resulted in some of the largest annual adjustments since the early 1980s. Beneficiaries received hefty increases of 5.9% for 2022 and 8.7% for 2023 – but only 3.2% for this year, since inflation has cooled.

Still, over the past five years, only the 2023 adjustment has beaten the rate of inflation, the league said. The COLAs lagged inflation by as much as 1.1 percentage points the other years.

The annual adjustments are based on the percentage change in an inflation index from average for the third quarter of the current year compared to the same period in the prior year. Next year’s boost will be announced in October, but it is expected to be about 2.6% based on inflation rates through July, according to the league.

That’s not enough to keep up with many seniors’ actual expenses, especially since the shortfall accumulates when prior COLAs don’t cover price increases, said Shannon Benton, the league’s executive director.

“We’re hearing that household costs rose faster than the COLA last year, with food and housing leading the way,” she said, adding that some seniors are being forced to spend down their retirement savings at a faster rate and go into credit card debt.

For Albrecht, it feels like her Social Security benefits have lost more than 20% of their buying power.

“Food prices are still going up. Utility prices have skyrocketed,” she said. “Let’s face it, the cost of everything is up.”

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