One of the largest nonpartisan senior citizens advocacy groups, the Senior Citizens League (TSCL), has recently gathered more than a million signatures in support of an emergency $1,400 stimulus check that would greatly help the economy cope with unprecedented inflation.
The main point of the petition reads that Social Security recipients should get $1,400 as part of an emergency stimulus check. It argued that the money would help the economy and many people to cope during the unprecedented inflation this year. It is one of the few types of incomes in retirement that are adjusted for inflation, GoBankingRates reported.
Senior Citizens' Stimulus Check
The petition also argued that the COLA increases were not suitable enough for seniors living on a specified income due to the 5% inflation surge that has occurred in the last 13 months. It adds that Social Security benefits in 2021 increased by only 1.3%, raising the average benefit by only roughly $20 per month.
It added that roughly 86% of Social Security benefit recipients who were surveyed revealed that their expenses surged by much more than the increased amount that they received, Yahoo Finance reported.
The petition aims to support an estimated 69 million Social Security beneficiaries, including retirees, disabled adults and their dependents, widows, and widowers. It is calling on Congress to deliver the $1,400 emergency stimulus checks under the support of hundreds of thousands of signatures.
The Social Security cost of living is estimated to grow to 6.2% in 2022, based on data collected by a group. "We believe that a special stimulus for Social Security recipients could help defray the higher costs some would face if next year's [Cost of Living Adjustment] bumps them into a higher tax bracket, causing higher tax rates on their income and surcharges to their Medicare Part B premiums," said a policy analyst at TSCL Mary Johnson, Newsweek reported.
Fourth Stimulus Check
The situation comes as another petition that was created previously and is calling for $2,000 in monthly stimulus checks is only 60,000 signatures away from its three million target. The number of supporters of the petition surged in the summer months but has waned after the continuous decline of coronavirus cases and deaths in the United States.
Denver restaurant owner Stephanie Bonin launched the Change.org petition last year, asking for the U.S. House of Representatives and Senate to create legislation that gives out $2,000 monthly stimulus payments to adults and $1,000 stimulus checks to kids. The petition urges lawmakers to distribute the funds immediately and make them continuous and recurring for the duration of the pandemic.
As of Saturday, the petition has gathered more than 2,940,800 signatures, with the last month marking the latest 44,000 new supporters. If it reaches its goal of three million signatures, Bonin's petition would be one of the most signed on the site.
The petition reached its peak of more than 100,000 new supporters a week during the summer COVID-19 surge. It was at the time when families were struggling to weather the effects of the health crisis on the economy.
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