Retirees Will See Increase on '09 Checks

Every little bit helps, but the boost is coming after a year when people living on fixed incomes have been pounded by surging energy prices and higher food costs.

The yearly adjustment in Social Security checks is linked to government inflation figures, but advocacy groups for seniors say it's far short of what the typical retiree needs to keep up with rising living costs.

The Senior Citizens League said it did a study that indicated people 65 and older have lost 51 percent of their buying power since 2000, with the price of home heating oil and gasoline more than doubling since the beginning of the decade and such food staples as eggs and potatoes also showing big increases.

"Although the word 'crisis' gets thrown around a lot in our national dialogue, there's no other word to describe it. Millions of our nation's seniors are facing an economic crisis," says Daniel O'Connell, the league's chairman.

The 5.8 percent increase announced Thursday by the Social Security Administration will go to the 50 million Americans receiving benefits. It is the biggest jump since the 7.4 percent of 1982.

The $63 typical monthly increase compares to the $24 advance that retirees saw in this year's benefit checks, an increase of just 2.3 percent and the smallest in four years.

The typical retiree's monthly check will go from $1,090 to $1,153.