Social Security Stimulus: Why Recipients Shouldn’t Hold Out for $1,400 Check Anytime Soon
Written by
David Nadelle
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The Senior Citizens League (TSCL), a non-partisan advocacy group, started a pressure campaign back in October to push Congress to assist those receiving Social Security with supplementary stimulus money. Since then, inflation has increased more than two percent, making last year’s historic cost of living increase a moot point and no stimulus money is on the horizon.
The letter, which was sent to Congress, calls for a one-off $1,400 Social Security stimulus payment for seniors, as GOBankingRates previously reported. It reads:
“We’ve heard from thousands of them [seniors] who have exhausted their retirement savings, who have started eating just one meal a day, started cutting their pills in half because they can’t afford their prescription drugs, to list just a few of the drastic steps so many have had to take because of what inflation has done to them this year.”
Is a check in the works? Mary Johnson, TSCL’s Social Security and Medicare Policy analyst, told KGW.com’s VERIFY team that it is early on in the legislative year — and is an election year as well — so the league is hopeful that “a provision will be included in relevant budget legislation later this fall.”
However, even if a stimulus check were to happen, it wouldn’t be enough for seniors. As GOBankingRates previously reported, to account for inflation, social security payments would need to be $540 higher per month to match how much they were worth 22 years ago.
Johnson previously shared at the time that seniors are away of how little buying power their money now has, explaining that, “for every $100 of goods or services that retirees bought in 2000, today they would only be able to buy $60 worth.”
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