Social Security’s 2025 cost-of-living increase won’t be enough to keep pace with inflation, retirees say.

Sherri Myers, an 82-year-old resident of Pensacola City, Florida, says the Social Security cost-of-living increase she will receive in January “will not hurt” her to make ends meet. costs.

“Inflation ate up my savings,” he said. “There’s nothing to go back to—the pillow is gone.” So even with the expected increase he is looking for a job that will supplement his retirement income, which includes a small pension and his Social Security benefits.

About 70.6 million Social Security recipients are expected to experience lower cost-of-living increases in 2025 than in recent years, as inflation moderates. The Social Security Administration made the official COLA announcement Thursday, and analysts are predicting it will be 2.5% by 2025. Recipients received a 3.2% increase in their benefits in 2024, after a massive 8.7% increase in benefits in 2023, brought on by record 40-year high inflation.

“I think a lot of adults will say that this is not really enough to keep up with the rates,” said AARP Senior Vice President of Government Affairs Bill Sweeney.

He said that inflation is an indication that inflation is coming down.

The announcement comes as the national social insurance system faces significant financial shortfalls in the coming years.

The Social Security and Medicare trustees’ annual report released in May said the trust fund will not be able to pay full benefits starting in 2035. If the trust fund runs out, the government will be able to pay only 83% of the planned benefits, the report said. said.

This program is funded by taxes paid by employees and their employers. The maximum amount of income subject to Social Security taxes was $168,600 in 2024, up from $160,200 in 2023. Analysts estimate that the peak will rise to $174,900 by 2025.

On the campaign trail for president, Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump presented their respective plans on how to strengthen public safety.

Harris says on his campaign website that he will protect Social Security by making “billionaires and billionaires pay their fair share of taxes.”

Trump promises not to cut the social security system or make changes to the retirement age. Trump is also promising tax cuts for older Americans, writing on Truth Social in July that “OLDERS SHOULD NOT PAY TAXES FOR SOCIAL SECURITY!”

AARP held interviews with both Harris and Trump in late August, and asked how the candidates would protect the Social Security Trust Fund.

Harris said he would close the deficit by making “billionaires and big corporations pay their share of taxes and use that money to protect and strengthen Public Safety for the long term.”

Trump said “we will protect it with growth.” I don’t want to do anything that affects aging. I won’t do that. As you know, I was there for four years and I never even thought about doing it. I’m not going to do anything about Social Security.”

Lawmakers have proposed various solutions to address the funding shortfall.

The Republican Study Committee’s Fiscal Year 2025 plan proposed reducing Social Security costs by raising the retirement age and reducing the annual COLA. Trump has yet to approve the plan.

Linda Benesch, a spokeswoman for Social Security Works, a group that advocates for the social insurance program, said “we are concerned about the Republican Study Committee’s budget, and the provisions in it that would reduce benefits for retirees.”

Social Security Works endorsed Harris as president in July, in part because of his decision as a California senator, to co-sponsor a bill that called on the Social Security Administration to use a different index to calculate cost of living increases: the CPI-E, which measures price changes based on people’s consumption patterns. seniors, such as health care, food and medicine costs.

COLA is currently calculated according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ Consumer Price Index, or CPI.

-Fatima Hussein, Associated Press