By MATT SEDENSKY, Associated Press
WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. – For some, the just-announced increase in Social Security checks amounts to an extra meal out, a little more cash for clothes or a new pair of shoes, some added comfort in retirement. For Elizabeth Davis, it’s a crucial boost to the only thing keeping her afloat.
The 71-year-old Miami woman grew up picking cotton on her family’s South Carolina farm, raised four children and has worked all her life, even now at a preschool. She is divorced, and her small 401k account “went down the drain,” she said. So she counts the days to the third Wednesday of each month, when her $668 Social Security check arrives, and she is able to pay her bills.
“I could live a little better,” she said of the 3.6 percent raise announced this week, the first in two years. “I don’t have anything to look forward to until that check every month.”
The reaction the cost-of-living adjustment has garnered illuminates the divide between the rich and poor among America’s oldest residents. Social Security represents a staggering share of income for lower- and middle-class seniors – made evident just this week in a new government report – and for whom any increase can make a world of difference. For upper-income seniors, it’s simply a nice plus.