Seniors Are Not Happy With Their Social Security Checks

Newsweek

4 days ago

Based on facts, either observed and verified firsthand by the reporter, or reported and verified from knowledgeable sources.
American seniors are growing increasingly frustrated with their Social Security benefits, as a new report finds that nearly two-thirds of retirees are dissatisfied with the amount they receive.
While the average Social Security check has reached just in excess of $2,000 this year, a survey conducted by The Senior Citizen's League (TSCL) of 1,920 respondents over age 62 shows only 10 percent saying they were satisfied with their amount. Meanwhile, 63 percent reported being dissatisfied, and 27 percent said they were neither satisfied nor dissatisfied.
"Rapidly increasing costs are cutting into everyone's budget, including those of seniors," Chris Motola, financial analyst at NationalBusinessCapital.com, told Newsweek. "Part of the problem is the near-disappearance of pensions for private sector employees, which means seniors are increasingly reliant on Social Security to fund their retirement expenses."
Composite image created by Newsweek.
Composite image created by Newsweek.
Newsweek Illustration/Canva/Getty
That reliance is significant. The report found that nearly 73 percent of seniors depend on Social Security for more than half their income. More than a third—39 percent—rely on it as their sole source of retirement income. Nineteen percent depend on it for at least three-quarters of their income, while 15 percent receive half to three-quarters of their income from the program.
Behind this dissatisfaction lies a deeper economic issue. According to TSCL, Social Security benefits have lost about 20 percent of their buying power since 2010 due to cost-of-living adjustments (COLAs) that have failed to keep pace with actual inflation—particularly in categories like housing and transportation, where prices have risen more sharply than the overall inflation rate for more than a decade.
The COLA is a long-standing feature of Social Security, intended to preserve the purchasing power of benefits by adjusting payments in line with inflation. It is calculated using the Consumer Price Index for Urban Wage Earners and Clerical Workers (CPI-W), which tracks spending patterns among working Americans. The Bureau of Labor Statistics surveys price fluctuations for around 80,000 products quarterly and compiles the results into an index.
Each year, the COLA is based on the average CPI-W from the third quarter of the current year compared to the same period the previous year. If there's an increase, it is rounded to the nearest tenth of a percent to determine the COLA. For 2025, this formula resulted in a 2.5 percent increase in benefits.
However, TSCL argues that these annual adjustments "often fail to keep up with inflation as seniors experience it."
"In particular, housing and transportation costs have increased faster than inflation over the last 15 years, which is especially difficult for seniors who rent their homes or live in areas with low walkability," the report reads.
Colin Ruggiero, co-founder of DisabilityGuidance.org, which helps Americans with disabilities file their Social Security applications, told Newsweek that "even though the dollar amount of benefits has increased on paper, what those dollars can buy has eroded.
"For someone on a fixed income, every dollar counts. When you can't stretch your check as far as you could a decade ago it reinforces the belief that Social Security is falling short of its promise."
Many seniors share that belief. According to the report, only 20 percent of retirees feel that inflation has not outpaced the COLA, while 80 percent believe actual inflation in 2024 was higher than the 2.5 percent adjustment.
"Given the mismatch in their perceptions of inflation and inflation as reported by the CPI-W, it's unsurprising that seniors are worried about the value of their Social Security checks," TSCL said.