Dear Editor,
The better off get better off and the less fortunate get less fortunate. Every year the Social Security Administration (SSA) gives us elder people on Social Security a cost-of-living increase, or COLA. It is always in the form of a percentage increase.
I’ve been on Social Security for over 10 years and this is the way it is always done. Also, SSA deducts the fee for being on Medicare. Sometimes it goes up and like last year it dropped a little. But here is the problem. According to the SSA, the average Social Security recipient receives a little over $1,800 per month and they state that the 3.2% we are going to get this year amounts to around $59.
Well, if we are supposed to be helping those who are less fortunate, we aren’t. A person getting, let’s say, $1,200 per month will only receive about $38 more while someone who receives $2,400 per month will receive about $77 more per month. Now who do you suppose could use more money, the upper earner or someone struggling to pay the light bill? This has been going on every year since I’ve been receiving Social Security and the gap between those less fortunate and those better off has done nothing but widen.
What should be done is to establish what the average increase would be for the average Social Security receiver, this year about $59, and give the same increase to every recipient equally. For instance, this year lower and higher amount recipients would each get around $59. Wouldn’t this be fair? It wouldn’t cost the country any more money to do this and after many years there might be a more equitable result.
Jon Filion,
Salisbury
