00:00 Brad
For those in or nearing retirement, we’ve got some news for you. Costs of living adjustments for Social Security recipients are projected to be lower in 2026 than they were this year. Here with the latest, we’ve got our very own Carrie Hannon. Carrie, what can seniors expect?
00:19 Carrie
Hey, Brad. Yeah, um, the Senior Citizens League came out with their estimate, um, for next year, for 2026 of 2.3% adjustment upwards. Now, that’s lower than the cost of living adjustment was for this year, which was 2.5%. But I got to say, Brad, this is early in the game. This is a cloudy crystal ball at best because it’s based on the inflation numbers in through March, right? And the cost of living adjustment is calculated by the average of the July cost of the July inflation data, August inflation data, and September. So we’ve got a ways to go. This number did not include, uh, the announcement of the tariffs, uh, this was pre-tariff announcements. And the experts I have spoken to do anticipate higher inflation throughout this year. We don’t know, of course, at this point, but it’s a little early in the game to say it’s going to be 2.3%, but that’s where it stands right now. But we’ll know it will eventually be announced in mid-October to go into effect January, but we’ve got to wait and see what July, August, and September looks like for this inflation data.
02:25 Brad
Certainly. And so elsewhere in social security news, the administration is backing off plans to cut phone services for those applying for new benefits or checking benefits. So, Carrie, what do we need to know since we aren’t getting this controversial change?
02:49 Carrie
Yeah. My goodness, Brad, it caused such a flap because they announced that people who, uh, were going to, uh, initiate benefits and do those kinds of things could no longer, uh, do this sort of, uh, consumer service activity by telephone. And so many Americans do not have access to internet service in rural areas, or they’re disabled, they don’t have smartphones, so they cannot do it online. Four out of 10 do it, uh, enroll in their benefits by telephone. And so when they said, hey, we can’t do the telephone anymore because we’re trying to eliminate fraud, they their idea was that people would fraudsters would call up, uh, ostensibly and pretend to be someone else. And so they were stealing Social Security benefits. And, uh, lo and behold, uh, though all the consumer groups, senior citizen groups, et cetera, AARP pushed back and said, we can’t, you know, this is outrageous. Uh, it really is an obstacle for people, and it and will really hurt people who have to drive miles and miles to get to a field office to be identified in person. Um, and many of them, I mean, it was just, um, really very onerous and would actually prevent people getting their benefits in many cases, at least delay it. And that that was something that was just so, uh, with the White House announced that, yes, in fact, they’ve worked so hard that the computer systems can now detect the telephone. So the telephone service is back on. This was to go into effect this coming week. And now, uh, now they will allow phone service. Their software can identify fraud. And then, if they do, you will have to go in.
05:44 Brad
Carrie, excellent breakdown and continuing to track this story as it’s been a wild and contentious one, as you mentioned earlier on. Thanks so much.
06:00 Carrie
Thanks, Brad.