Senior Stimulus: Advocacy Group Proposes One-Time, $1,400 Payment for Social Security Recipients

Here is an excellent example of the limited value of surveys and also the disregard for the big picture consequences of I want, I deserve, I’m entitled.

“No retirement savings.” I don’t buy it. Why just accept this as fact unless they surveyed retirees who have lived in poverty all their lives.

The median household income for seniors age 75+ is $54,000. The median net worth of Americans age 65+ is over $250,000

“Savings had not recovered to levels of December 2019?” What’s the excuse for that? The only way that is possible is if the individuals did something stupid with their investments like getting out of the stock market at a low point.

Between December 2019 and March 2021 my 401k, invested 53% in bond funds and 47% in index mutual funds, returned 15.8%. My account grew significantly during that time even after I took my required minimum distribution.

A seniors advocacy group is reaching out to leading members of Congress to support a one-time, $1,400 Social Security stimulus payment to help older Americans overcome financial difficulties caused by inflation and the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.

The Senior Citizens League, a non-partisan group that advocates for senior benefits, announced on its website last week that Chairman Rick Delaney sent letters to Congressional leaders proposing the stimulus payment. In the letter, Delaney noted that his organization has heard from thousands of seniors who have “exhausted their retirement savings, started eating only one meal a day, started cutting their pills in half because they can’t afford prescription drugs.” “[These are] just a few of the drastic steps so many have had to take because of what inflation has done to them this year,” Delaney wrote, adding that many seniors believe “our government has forgotten about us.”

A $1,400 stimulus check — combined with a 6% increase in Social Security’s cost-of-living adjustment projected for next year — would go a long way toward easing those problems, said Mary Johnson, Social Security and Medicare policy analyst at TSCL. “There are several reasons why a $1,400 stimulus check for Social Security recipients is still greatly needed” even with the COLA increase, Johnson wrote in an email to GOBankingRates.

For one thing, she said, a large percentage of Social Security recipients are in “financially fragile” circumstances. “Roughly 43% of those responding to our online survey say they have no retirement savings,” Johnson said. “Of the people who do have savings, our surveys found that 50% of those responding said their retirement savings had not recovered to the pre-pandemic value as of December 31, 2019, despite the big run-up in the stock market later in 2020 and the first part of 2021 when our survey was conducted.

Read more at the link below.

Source: Senior Stimulus: Advocacy Group Proposes One-Time, $1,400 Payment for Social Security Recipients