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Social Security recipients may see cost-of-living boost in 2022 - YouTube
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some additional financial relief may be
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coming to 69 million americans who
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collect social security
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advocacy groups project that they are on
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track to get a 6.1 percent cost of
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living adjustment
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the biggest increase since 1983 and it
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comes as a pandemic restrictions ease
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causing a jump in
[19]
inflation with prices rising for
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everything from gasoline to groceries
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so cbs money watch reporter amy peaky
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wrote an article about the possible cost
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of living hike and joins me now
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to talk a little bit more about this so
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listen amy can you expand
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on why this uh cost of living increase
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is so large
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uh compared to the 2021 adjustment
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yeah um it all boils down to inflation
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um i think everybody's aware
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that things cost more this year
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groceries are up
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uh cars are more expensive gas of course
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when you go to the gas station it's a
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lot more expensive
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this year to fill up your tank than it
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was last year and the social security
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administration uses the inflation
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figures to
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determine the annual cost of living uh
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bump um that it will put into checks
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on the following year so that means that
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their
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the social security administration is
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tracking inflation and looking at these
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numbers and they'll
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decide you know based on the inflation
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this year what seniors will see
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in their checks next year and right now
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they're projecting or not they but
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advocates are projecting
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uh given inflation so far this year it's
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going to be 6.1 percent
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which is much bigger than the current
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year's increase which was only 1.3
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percent
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oh that's a lot bigger um so when could
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beneficiaries actually
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see this money and is there a
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possibility
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that the percentage could fluctuate
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before they actually get
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the cash yeah great questions
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um the increase will come into effect in
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january's checks and then that will be
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an in effect for the rest of the year
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um the decision won't be made until
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october
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so there is there is a possibility that
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it could come in lower than this
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or even higher if for instance inflation
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actually increases
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throughout the summer the social
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security administration will look at
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inflation
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over the summer and make its decision
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based on that in the fall
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so there are a few months left to wait
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so it's possible that it will fluctuate
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from that 6.1 percent increase
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but um you know advocates say that it's
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very likely it's going to be a lot
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higher than the current year's increase
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just because of what we're seeing with
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prices right now
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you know the big question with inflation
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is is this transitory or
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is it going to um continue
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and as i think most people know
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inflation is up because we're coming out
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of the pandemic
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there's a huge amount of demand there
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are supply bottlenecks
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and that's causing prices to go up so
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the question is as
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things become more normal will those
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prices even out
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right and but the thing about it is when
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it comes to social security
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and seniors who depend on it it's not a
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lot of money i mean seniors are are
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still
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often you know watching every penny that
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they spend even with cost of
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uh cost of living increases you mention
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in your article that there are efforts
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to sort of
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look at ways to recalculate this can you
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talk a little bit more about that
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yes absolutely um so there was a bill
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introduced earlier this month
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by representative john garamendi he's a
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democrat from
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california to change the measure that
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the social security social security
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administration uses to determine the
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annual
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um change in the cost of living
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adjustment and he's saying you know we
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need to use
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an index that actually tracks what the
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elderly spend
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one of the criticisms of the current
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measure that's used
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is that it doesn't accurately reflect
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what senior citizens spend on
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seniors tend to spend more in health
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care for instance so the measure that he
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wants to use
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weights health care more heavily than
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the current one
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so under his proposal the annual
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increase the annual uh
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increase would be about 3.1 um
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the current one that they've been using
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has had an average increase of 2.9
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percent
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so over time that difference compounds
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and you know advocates say
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if you use this measure this different
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measure that includes healthcare
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um weights healthcare more importantly
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that the average check right now would
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be about sixteen hundred dollars a month
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the average check
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currently is actually about twelve
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hundred dollars a month so that's a big
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difference
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and that would show up over time
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um when so this is all speculation based
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on how we know
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these sorts of things are calculated but
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when is the social security
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administration expected to actually make
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the official announcement on the cost of
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living adjustment
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yeah the actual announcement will come
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in october so i would say you know for
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senior citizens and people who collect
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social security checks keep your eyes
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open
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be aware of what's happening you know
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this year has been tough on a lot of
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seniors just because inflation has been
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so high and this year as i mentioned
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they only had a 1.3 percent increase so
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you know a lot of them are really
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pinching their pennies and and really
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struggling
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uh one advocate i spoke to said she had
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heard from a senior citizen who said
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they've cut down to one meal a day
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because they just can't manage
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on their checks right now so i would say
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watch out for that announcement in
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october and we will know more
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at that point about what the actual
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increase will be for next year
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man i hate to hear that hate to hear
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that people live a long and good life
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and they should be able to
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you know enjoy their retirement without
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worrying about where their next meal is
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going to be coming from
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amy peeky thank you very much thanks
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anne marie appreciate it
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so you can read amy's full article on
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cbsnews.com
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it's online right now just click the
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money watch tab and you can find it
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there
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