WASHINGTON -- Tens of millions of Social Security beneficiaries will not get a raise in 2016, the government announced on Thursday.
"With consumer prices down over the past year, monthly Social Security and Supplemental Security Income benefits for nearly 65 million Americans will not automatically increase in 2016," the Social Security Administration said in a press release.
The news comes on the heels of a debate between Democratic presidential candidates Hillary Clinton and Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), who has advocated changing the way cost-of-living adjustments are calculated so that seniors are more likely to get annual raises.
"It is unacceptable that millions of senior citizens and disabled veterans will not be receiving a cost-of-living adjustment to keep up with their rising living expenses,” Sanders said in a statement Thursday. "At a time when senior poverty is going up and more than two-thirds of the elderly population rely on Social Security for more than half of their income, our job must be to expand, not cut, Social Security."
Clinton, on the other hand, declined to say during the debate Tuesday night if she supported expanding benefits in the way Sanders did. Her campaign has not responded to further requests for comment from The Huffington Post.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), meanwhile, indicated this week that he wanted to make Social Security's cost-of-living adjustments less generous as part of a budget deal with President Barack Obama.
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