Is the COLA Enough in 2026?
Advocacy groups like The Senior Citizens League (TSCL) continue to raise concerns that the current method for calculating COLA is not keeping up with the actual expenses faced by seniors. The organization highlights that the costs of goods and services required by older Americans are increasing at a much faster rate than their Social Security benefits.
According to TSCL, there has been a significant erosion of purchasing power for retirees over the past two decades. The group’s ongoing loss-of-buying-power research found that Social Security benefits lost as much as 40% of their buying power between 2000 and 2022. Many seniors and advocates argue that the CPI-W does not accurately reflect the spending habits of retirees, who dedicate a larger portion of their income to healthcare and housing.
As a result, there is a growing call to update the COLA formula. In a recent TSCL survey, 68% of older Americans said they support switching the calculation to an index that better reflects the costs they actually face. One proposed alternative is the Consumer Price Index for the Elderly (CPI-E), which gives more weight to the expenses that disproportionately affect seniors.
