The brief’s key findings are:
- As life expectancy rises, more retirees face the higher poverty risk associated with very old ages due to declining resources, cumulative inflation, and widowhood.
- In response, some propose boosting Social Security for the oldest old by either:
- adopting an annual cost-of-living-adjustment (COLA) for all retirees that more closely matches the spending patterns of the elderly; or
- raising benefits for those ages 85 and over by a set percentage or a flat dollar amount.
- An age-85 flat-dollar adjustment is the best way to target those most at risk and has only a modest cost, which could be offset by a very small reduction in the COLA.
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