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Social Security Increase Of 5.8% Biggest Since '82

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By MARTIN CRUTSINGER

The Associated Press

Published: October 17, 2008

Updated: 10/17/2008 12:44 am

WASHINGTON - Social Security checks are going up $63 a month for the typical retiree, the largest increase in more than a quarter century but likely to seem puny to the millions who have been watching in horror as Wall Street lays waste to their retirement nest eggs.

Every little bit helps, but the boost comes when people living on fixed incomes have been pounded by surging energy prices and higher food costs and lately have seen their lifetime savings shrivel along with the stock market.

The yearly adjustment in Social Security checks is linked to government inflation figures, but advocacy groups for seniors say it's far short of what the typical retiree needs to keep up with rising living costs.

The Senior Citizens League said it did a study that indicated people 65 and over have lost 51 percent of their buying power since 2000, with the price of home heating oil and gasoline more than doubling since the beginning of the decade and such food staples as eggs and potatoes showing big increases as well.

The 5.8 percent increase announced Thursday by the Social Security Administration will go to the 50 million Americans receiving benefits. It is the biggest jump since the 7.4 percent of 1982. The $63 typical monthly increase compares to the $24 advance that retirees saw in this year's benefit checks, an increase of just 2.3 percent and the smallest in four years.

The typical retiree's monthly check will go from $1,090 to $1,153.

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