Retirees to Congress: Second Economic Stimulus Package Must Have an Emergency COLA...

Retirees to Congress: Second Economic Stimulus Package Must Have an Emergency
COLA Increase to Help Seniors

RESTON, Va., July 22 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- On behalf of its almost
400,000 senior citizen supporters nationwide, RetireSafe today urged Congress
to give America's retired population an Emergency COLA Increase in the new
economic stimulus package it is currently considering.

"Price inflation continues to hit seniors particularly hard. They are often
living on a fixed income and have no opportunities to increase their income,"
said RetireSafe President Michelle Plasari. Now is the time to give those same
seniors a fair COLA.

"With a COLA increase of 2.3 percent, the average senior living on Social
Security received a raise of about $288 this year - hardly enough to keep up
with their rising cost of living. Congress gave itself a raise of over $4,000
this year," continued Plasari.

"Millions of retirees are now facing escalating costs for their most basic
needs - food and energy. According to the U.S. Department of Labor, June
retail prices were up 5 percent on an annual basis. Older Americans faced
overall energy prices up 6.6 percent, with gas prices up 10.1 percent. They
were also slammed at the grocery store, with prices up 6.1 percent, led by
cereals and bakery goods up 10.4 percent year-over-year," Plasari said.

"One surefire way to include seniors in any new stimulus package is to adopt
an emergency cost of living adjustment (COLA) increase for Social Security.
Today's COLA is calculated based on the habits of young, urban professionals.
It doesn't take into account the rising health care, insurance, and energy
costs America's seniors are currently struggling with," said Plasari.

The Social Security COLA was adopted to help seniors keep up with inflation.
Since 1983, the Bureau of Labor Statistics has maintained an experimental
consumer price index for the elderly (CPI-E) that tracks seniors' expenses
more closely than the formula currently used to calculate the COLAs. Some
groups have shown that since 2000, seniors have lost as much as 40% of their
buying power as a result of not adopting the CPI-E as the COLA standard.

"Senior Americans are responsible for 14% of consumer spending in this country
today. They are a vital and growing segment of our economy and shouldn't be
forgotten in any new stimulus plan. An emergency COLA increase would put
needed spending money in their pockets," said Plasari. "They need an emergency
COLA increase now, and a fair COLA from now on!"

SOURCE RetireSafe

Michelle Plasari of RetireSafe, +1-703-766-6360, mplasari@retiresafe.org