(The Epoch Times)—An estimated 21.8 million senior citizens in America make ends meet solely using their social security funds, The Senior Citizens League (TSCL) said in a June 20 statement.
There are more than 68 million Social Security beneficiaries as of 2024, according to data from the Social Security Administration (SSA).
“Almost two-thirds of seniors who completed the survey said they were dissatisfied with the amount they receive from their monthly Social Security checks,” said the TSCL statement.
Ninety-four percent said the 2025 COLA of 2.5 percent was too low, and their benefits did not keep pace with economic inflation. COLA is an annual adjustment to social security payments made to ensure that benefits keep pace with inflation. The SSA announces the COLA in October every year, which is implemented in the following year.
Moreover, many believe that last year’s actual inflation was considerably higher than the government’s estimate. The Bureau of Labor Statistics estimates 2024 inflation to be 2.9 percent.
Nearly all, or 95 percent, said that reforming Social Security and Medicare should be taken as a top priority by the federal administration and Congress. A majority were in favor of “calculating the COLA with an inflation index that better represents seniors’ economic experiences.”
The January to March 2025 survey was conducted among 3,050 American seniors over the age of 62 who were eligible for their Social Security benefits. Out of those who took the survey, 1,920 provided enough data to use in the study.
According to the survey report, the median U.S. senior lives on $1,000-$2,000 a month. This includes 13 percent of seniors living on less than $1,000 a month.
“TSCL estimates that approximately 7.3 million American seniors survive on less than $1,000 a month, which would put them below $15,650 for the year, the 2025 Federal poverty line for a household of one. TSCL also estimates that another 24.5 million survive on between $1,000 and $2,000,” said the report.
“This is especially challenging for seniors who rent, like 36 percent of those who participated in this study. The average U.S. rent for a one-bedroom apartment is $1,327 as of May 2025.”
Nearly 40 percent of seniors were found to be dependent on social security “for the entirety of their income.” Around 73 percent depend on these benefits for over half their income.
“Seniors who live on only Social Security are much more likely to live on extremely meager incomes. In total, 20 percent of seniors who depend on Social Security for 100 percent of their income live on $1,000 or less per month, compared to 13 percent of seniors overall,” said the report.
The survey found that many seniors claimed their benefits early at the cost of penalties.
People who wait for retirement, 66-67 years of age, get benefits based on their historical earnings. However, those who start claiming benefits as early as 62 years of age will suffer a permanent reduction in monthly receipts of up to 30 percent.
“About 68 percent of seniors start claiming their Social Security benefits before retirement age. A plurality, 42 percent, claim their benefits as soon as they are eligible in exchange for a 30 percent reduction,” according to the report.
The biggest reason seniors choose to claim their benefits early is financial pressure, said the report.
A third of the respondents reported taking benefits early because they were unable to meet living expenses, such as groceries or rent, without these benefits. In addition, 22 percent took benefits early to handle a medical emergency or deal with a medical issue.
Calculation Reforms
Most survey participants advocated for reforms in COLA calculation, with the popular opinion being to use an inflation index representing their economic experiences rather than solely relying on urban wages.
At present, COLA is calculated using the Consumer Price Index for Urban Wage Earners. TSCL advocated switching the COLA calculation to the Consumer Price Index for the Elderly.
“The data in this study shows what seniors have been telling TSCL for years: Social Security checks aren’t keeping up with inflation,” said TSCL executive director Shannon Benton.
“If four in five seniors think inflation was higher than the government reported in 2024, maybe we should stop questioning their experiences and start questioning why the COLA is failing to measure them.”
Benton warned against any move to cut Social Security. Given that it makes up at least half the incomes earned by almost three-quarters of seniors, cuts to the program would “push millions of hard-working Americans further into poverty, robbing them of their right to retire with dignity.”
According to data from the SSA, before 2020, the last time there was a COLA adjustment of 5 percent or more was in 2008 when COLA was 5.8 percent. Post 2020, COLAs of 5.9 and 8.7 percent were implemented in 2021 and 2022, respectively.
In 2023, COLA dropped to 3.2 percent, moving down to 2.5 percent in 2024, with the same rate implemented this year as well.
In a June 11 statement, TSCL predicted COLA for 2026 to be 2.5 percent.
If inflation were to rise in any significant manner over the coming months, for instance, due to the tariff policies being followed by the current Trump administration, COLA for next year could be pushed up as well.
$2,000 Checks, Fund Depletion
The TSCL survey comes at a time when the average social security payment for retired workers has hit $2,000 per month for the first time ever. According to SSA data, the average monthly payment stood at $2,002.39 in May, up 4.5 percent from a year ago. Retired workers make up 75 percent of Social Security beneficiaries.
The average benefit for all individuals, including retired and non-retired individuals, was $1,857.75 last month.
Meanwhile, social security funds are at risk of being depleted earlier than expected.
The 2025 OASDI trustees report, published on June 18, revealed that the cost of the social security program started exceeding its income in 2021. The funds are expected to be depleted by 2034, one year earlier than last year’s projections.
Post this date, SSA will only be able to pay beneficiaries 81 percent of the scheduled benefits.
“The Trustees recommend that lawmakers address the projected trust fund shortfalls in a timely way in order to phase in necessary changes gradually and give workers and beneficiaries time to adjust,” the report said.
“Implementing changes sooner rather than later would allow more generations to share in the needed revenue increases or reductions in scheduled benefits.”
In February, a group of lawmakers introduced the Social Security Expansion Act to tackle the issue, according to a Feb. 7 statement from the office of Rep. Val Hoyle (D-Ore.).
The legislation seeks to ensure that social security remains fully funded for the next 75 years by applying the social security payroll tax to all annual incomes higher than $250,000. The bill also aims to boost benefits by $2,400 per year.
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For every COLA raise our Medicare premium goes up, my premium for BCBS goes up, my drug plan goes up. So the cola increase is taken by the increases. Funny how that works.
On the topic of social security, this article has some errors. First, it is the states that are pushing people into taking their social security early. At age 65, you are no longer eligible for Obamacare and if you don’t sign up for Medicare, you have to pay a life time penalty. Since age discrimination in the work place is alive and well in the USA, it leaves the senior with little choice.
Next if you apply to the state for benefits to cover the Medicare payment or food stamps when you are below the poverty level of $15,560, you get turned down for coverage of the Medicare premium and are only eligible for $20 per month of food stamps even though the person is not collecting for a full year. Instead the state uses the monthly amount times 12. Oh and the people you get to talk to all have an accent. Maybe ICE needs to start looking into some of our own government entities.
Yet as illegals walked across the border, the doctors at intake put them on social security disability, food stamps, Medicaid, housing vouchers, free phones, etc. The cost was over $3,000 a month and where do you think the gubberment got the money from. Oh yeah that is right, they robbed social security which had long been pushed into the general fund and now funneled to DHS. Then of course, the gubberment put Ukrainians on social security per the equivalent of the Ukrainian state department website.
In the mean time, thousands of families took in their homeless siblings and struggled to make ends meet while states wasted billions on the homeless pimps that worked for the government or useless NGO’s. To make matters worst, the gubberment decided to penalized the homeless by claiming the dollars used to help to support them by family into the calculation in order not to pay social services benefits. A rule which applied only to legal USA citizens. Go figure. I personally took in two family members so I know how the system does not work for Americans, especially if they are single. The alternative after watching the homeless videos was not an option in my mind and my life time count of putting a roof over some one’s head and food in their bellies is five. Yes, it has been a real struggle as my husband and I were not financially well off, but I would do it all over again and know both of us have earned our wings.
The system must change from allowing American families to stay on social services until the last one turns 18, because it is unconstitutional whereby martial status is the most egregious discriminatory practice in play at the federal and state level. We need to go from a hand out system to hand up system for every American citizen regardless of age, martial status or childless and it has to have a lifetime limit of five years only.
Four out of the five homeless people we helped stood on their own within a few years and the last one should be independent shortly. My system worked whereby the gubberment system is failing and benefits only those pumping out kids and illegals that teach each other how to scam the system despite hundred of billions of taxpayer money wasted.
Bottom line, it is clear in my mind that gubberment and all politicians hate and despise the elderly wishing we would all just lay down and die. So if they are looking to alienate the largest voting block in the country, congratulations, mission accomplished.