You don’t need to be a math whiz to understand that when you get a 5.9% raise, but inflation exceeds that, that you’re going to lose ground. That, in a nutshell, explains the problem that millions of Social Security recipients have encountered this year. Essentials like food, heating oil and natural gas, for example, have gone up more this year—in some cases a lot more—than the 5.9% cost of living increase that Social Security recipients got this year. This has led ma …
