Cost Of Living Allowance (COLA) Increase for My Military Retirement and Social Security

Written By:  Andrew Eide

The Cost of Living Allowance (COLA) increase for 2017 for my Military Retirement and for my Social Security Retirement is here. The amount the Government decided to give us was 0.3 percent. Please don’t confuse that as meaning we received a 3.0 percent increase as some people confuse the figure. No we did not get a 3.0 percent COLA increase we only received a 0.3 percent increase. That means for every $100 in Retirement income we get 30 Cents more. If it were a 3.0 percent increase we would have received $3.00 more for each $100 of income.

So what does this 0.3 percent COLA increase mean to me when it comes to my Military Retirement and my Social Security Retirement? It means I receive $4 more per month on my Military Retirement and $4.00 per month more on my Social Security.

Keira also receives what is called Supplemental Social Security. This is paid to those of us receiving Social Security and we have a dependent child less than 16 years of age. For Keira’s Supplemental Social Security this amounts to $2.00 per month more.

As you can see receiving $48 more in my Military Retirement per year, and $48 per year more in my Social Security, really doesn’t offset the Cost of Living which is what a Cost of Living Allowance is supposed to do. I assure you that it costs me a lot more than $96  additional to live in 2017 than it did in 2016 so the $96 received total for the COLA increase on my Military Retirement and Social Security are token and do little to help meet the increase in real cost of living expenses.

The reason I get upset is that our Congressmen and Senators in Congress will tell you, if you call them, that they also received only a 0.3 percent COLA increase. What I always tell them is there is a huge difference between 0.3 percent on my Military Retirement and Social Security than there is with them receiving 0.3 percent on their $200,000 or more salaries. Even if you combine what I make with both Military Retirement and Social Security members of Congress still make more than six times what I make in one year on my two Retirement incomes so they shouldn’t even get a COLA increase.