Social Security checks to get boost for 2019

WASHINGTON — Tens of millions of Social Security recipients and other retirees will get a 2.8 percent increase in benefits next year as inflation edges higher. For the average retired worker, it amounts to $39 a month.

After a period of low inflation, the increase for 2019 is the highest in seven years.

The cost-of-living adjustment, or COLA, affects household budgets for about 1 in 5 Americans, including Social Security beneficiaries, disabled veterans and federal retirees. That’s about 70 million people, enough to send ripples through the economy.

Automatic inflation protection has been a standard feature of Social Security since 1975. Social Security recipients also gain from compounding because COLAs becomes part of their underlying benefit, the base for future COLA increases.

Nonetheless many retirees and their advocates say the Social Security COLA is too meager and doesn’t reflect higher health care costs for older people.

With the COLA, the estimated average monthly Social Security payment for a retired worker will be $1,461 a month next year.

Other Social Security beneficiaries include disabled workers and surviving spouses and children. Low-income disabled and elderly people receiving Supplemental Security Income also get a COLA.

President Donald Trump has repeatedly vowed not to cut Social Security or Medicare,

But the government is running $1 trillion deficits and mounting deficits will revive pressure to cut Social Security, advocates for the elderly fear.