Social Security Inflation Adjustments Fell 46 Percent Short of Actual Cost Increases in 2022: Report

A sign outside a U.S. Social Security Administration building in Burbank, Calif., on Nov. 5, 2020. Valerie Macon/AFP via Getty Images

Retirees on Social Security have been feeling the effects of inflation since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, but the financial strain was particularly pronounced in 2022 as inflation soared and inflation-based adjustments fell short by nearly half, according to a new analysis by The Senior Citizens League (TSCL), a non-partisan organization.

On Thursday, TSCL published a report on how inflation-based cost-of-living adjustment (COLA) for Social Security benefits have consistently fallen short of pandemic-era inflation.