Social Security payments could be boosted by $2,400 a year under a bill currently being debated in Congress. Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders and Oregon Rep. Peter DeFazio introduced the Social Security Expansion Act on June 9, which would increase Social Security payments by $200 per month for most recipients.
The bill would raise Social Security taxes on Americans making more than $250,000 per year, which Sanders and DeFazio claimed would not affect 93 percent of taxpayers.
A person who qualifies for Social Security benefits next year could receive $200 more a month in payments if the bill is passed, according to DeFazio.
According to CNBC, protecting Social Security is a top priority for the public
People are “very concerned” about running out of money to pay benefits to future generations, according to a June survey from Social Security Works and Data for Progress. This program may only be able to pay out about 80% of its benefits by 2035, according to recent estimates from the Social Security Administration.
“At a time when half of older Americans have no retirement savings and millions of senior citizens are living in poverty, our job is not to cut Social Security,” Sanders stated in a statement. ‘Our job must be to expand Social Security so that every American senior citizen and a disabled person can retire with the dignity and security they deserve.
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What did DeFazio’s office say?
DeFazio’s office says that the bill proposed by Sanders and DeFazio would also raise the Cost-of-Living Adjustments to better reflect the spending habits of the elderly.
An inflation measurement tied to urban wage earners and clerical workers is used by Social Security to adjust its cost-of-living rate each year. Sanders-bill, DeFazio’s on the other hand, would alter the cost of living by taking into account the higher proportion of senior citizens’ spending on health care and prescription drugs.
According to the AARP, the typical monthly Social Security benefit check was $1,668 in May. As of June, inflation was at 9.1%, which means that checks could be significantly larger next year in order to keep up with rising prices.
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