Daily Money - Is this the age of 'unretirement?'

Every year, the Social Security Administration raises benefits to bring recipients’ payments up to speed with inflation — but according to most retirees, the annual cost-of-living-adjustment (or COLA) for 2024 won’t be enough to bridge the gap.

Beneficiaries saw a historic 8.7% COLA for 2023 as runaway inflation sent Americans’ household costs soaring. Headline inflation eased throughout the year, but many retired Americans say they’re still struggling to pay for health care, groceries and other expenses — so much so that most don’t think the latest 3.2% COLA will cover their costs.

The average COLA over the last 10 years comes out to 2.6%, making next year’s increase significantly higher than usual. Still, a recent survey of Americans aged 62 and older who collect Social Security by law firm Atticus found that 62% of retirees are dissatisfied with the 2024 COLA. Almost 40% of respondents said they plan to seek employment as a result.

That tracks with earlier research from T. Rowe Price that found 1 in 5 retirees have “unretired” since the mass retirement surge of 2020 and 2021, meaning they’ve returned to work full- or part-time. Nearly half of that group said they needed to return to the workforce for financial reasons. 

You can read more about the Atticus survey results here, and be sure to check out Money’s handy guide to the 2024 COLA.

— Mary Ellen Cagnassola, Money reporter

Another new study, this one from Harvard University’s Joint Center for Housing Studies, reveals an increasing degree of financial insecurity among older Americans. The report found that nearly 11.2 million older adults were “cost burdened” in 2021, meaning over 30% of their income went toward housing costs. That’s an all-time high and a major jump from the 9.7 million older adults who were cost burdened in 2016. Researchers warn the problem will continue to worsen as the U.S. population ages.

• Families are struggling to secure home health care amid a shortage of home health aides and a lack of affordable options.
• With the Medicare enrollment deadline approaching, recipients and those in need of insurance by Jan. 1, 2024 are encouraged to elect or review their benefits.
• New data shows that employers and workers have very different definitions of retirement readiness. A recent survey from Voya Investment Management found that 87% of retirement plan sponsors (employers) said participants (workers) were somewhat or very prepared for retirement, but only 63% of those participants said the same. 

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