“Ms. James, 92, a former factory seamstress, lives on Social Security and a small pension totaling about $688 a month, or $8,266 annually. That puts her income well below the official federal poverty line of $11,490 a year* for a single person.”
“Ms. James is one of 430,000 people in Philadelphia — 28 percent of the city’s population — who live below the poverty line, the highest rate among the 10 largest American cities. Some 200,000 live on income that is less than half the federal poverty threshold, placing them in the “deep poverty” category, according to city statistics.”
More: Making the Safety Net More Visible in Philadelphia, New York Times, 30 August 2013
* The federal poverty line for a single person in 2015 is $11,770/yr; for a couple it’s $15,930/yr.
And to make matters worse, there will not be an increase in Social Security payments for 2016. The increases are never large and usually Medicare premium increases take a share, but anything is better than zero.
I read that! Senator Warren wants to give seniors a one-time 3.9% increase to make up for no COLA increase in 2016. She arrived at that figure because it’s the average increase a CEO received last year. It won’t pass but at least she’s drawing attention to unfairness.
Elizabeth Warren proposes one-time $580 raise for Social Security recipients
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