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UFT Resolutions

Resolution in support of improved Social Security COLA

UFT Resolutions

WHEREAS, Social Security was enacted in 1935, and

WHEREAS, Social Security became one of the most popular laws in the history of the U.S., voted by the readers of US News and World Reports in 2003 to be one of the ten documents that most influenced American history, and

WHEREAS, UFT members are among the minority of Americans provided with the four pillars of retirement security, Social Security, a pension, a retiree voluntary savings fund, and retiree health insurance, and

WHEREAS, based on an amendment to the Social Security law in 1972, Social Security has provided for increases in the benefit based on cost of living adjustments known as COLAs., and

WHEREAS, these COLAs have been based on a formula known as CPI-W, the consumer price index and buying patterns of younger workers, and

WHEREAS, young workers and retirees don’t spend their money the same way. Younger workers spend less on health care and housing, while those are among the two items that older workers spend more on, and

WHEREAS, it has been estimated that Social Security benefits have lost about one-third of buying power since 2000 because of the use of the CPI-W, and

WHEREAS, there is an index knows as CPI-E which tracks elderly spending and rises faster than the current index Social Security uses, and

WHEREAS, millions of elderly Americans rely on Social Security for a majority of their income, and their income is not keeping up with their expenses, therefore, be it

RESOLVED, that the UFT urges its affiliates-NYSUT, the AFT, the NEA, ARA, and all of its allies in the labor and senior movements to strongly support the legislation which changes CPI-W to CPI-E as the index used to calculate the Social Security COLA.