(NEXSTAR) – An advocacy group working to protect the benefits of America’s senior citizens is currently pushing for the Social Security Administration to establish a “minimum” annual cost-of-living adjustment (COLA) in the coming years.
The Senior Citizens League, or TSCL, promoted its idea for a minimum annual COLA on Friday, shortly after the Social Security Administration (SSA) announced 2026’s official COLA increase to be 2.8%.
TSCL described 2026’s adjustment as only a “meager” increase over 2025’s COLA of 2.5%.
“The 2026 COLA is going to hurt for seniors,” TSCL executive director Shannon Benton was quoted as saying in a Friday press release. “Year after year, they warn that Social Security’s meager increases won’t be enough, and the Census Bureau estimates that about 10 percent of retirement-age Americans live in poverty.”
The COLA, which is designed to help Social Security and Supplemental Security Income (SSI) beneficiaries retain their buying power amid rising inflation, is calculated using data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics — specifically the Consumer Price Index for Urban Wage Earners and Clerical Workers (CPI-W). But TSCL has long argued that the CPI-W does not reflect the expenses that seniors are paying for things like healthcare or housing.
In the past, TSCL has supported the idea of calculating each year’s COLA increase using not the CPI-W, but rather the Consumer Price Index for the Elderly (CPI-E) — which is “specifically based on the spending patterns of Americans 62 years of age and older,” the BLS says.
Now, TSCL is also advocating for a system they call “CPI Best,” which means basing each year’s COLA increase on the highest of three options: the CPI-W, the CPI-E, or a minimum increase of 3%.
“Seniors, and The Senior Citizens League, call on Congress to take immediate action to strengthen COLAs to ensure Americans can retire with dignity, such as instituting a minimum COLA of 3 percent and changing the COLA calculation from the CPI-W to the CPI-E,” TSCL writes.
Benton also hasn’t forgotten about TSCL’s recent push for a one-time “make-up payment” of $1,400, which the group proposed in July. This payment, TSCL says, is needed to offset an “erosion” in purchasing power in the years following the pandemic.
Make-up payments aside, a majority of seniors surveyed for TSCL’s 2025 Senior Survey Report believe there are fundamental problems with how the Social Security Administration attempts to mitigate the effects of inflation when it comes to yearly benefit increases.
“COLA needs to reflect the cost of aging — not just the cost of inflation,” Benton told Nexstar on Friday. “The formula used for COLA calculations is outdated and doesn’t reflect what seniors actually spend money on, such as healthcare, rent, and prescription drugs. It’s time for a fix.”