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It's official: Social Security will not have cost-of-living increase

WASHINGTON — More than 58 million retirees and disabled Americans will get no increase in Social Security benefits next year, the second year in a row without a raise.

The Social Security Administration made it official this morning that inflation has been too low since the last increase in 2009 to warrant an increase for 2011.

The government had indicated earlier this week no increase was planned.

The announcement marks only the second year without an increase since automatic adjustments for inflation were adopted in 1975. The first year was this year.

The cost-of-living adjustments, or COLAs, are automatically set each year by an inflation measure that was adopted by Congress back in the 1970s.

To make up for the lack of a COLA, the House will vote in November — after congressional elections — on a bill to provide $250 payments to Social Security recipients, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said. But even if Pelosi can get the House to pass the proposal, it faces opposition in the Senate.

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