• 23
  • December
    2010

Military veterans receiving disability compensation thought they received some good news after receiving word of major cost-of-living adjustments.
A chain e-mail announced that new federal legislation could increase monthly benefits by more than 100 percent for some. While many disabled veterans and their families celebrated the news, it was short lived after learning that the claims, and e-mail, were bogus.

The legislation, known as House Resolution 4667, did propose increasing benefits as of Dec. 1, 2010. But the benefit increases for disabled veterans were tied to increases in Social Security. But Congress declined to approve a Social Security increase, which resulted in a loss of the cost of living adjustment (sometimes referred to as COLA) for a second year in the row for 58 million Social Security beneficiaries and for disabled veterans and their families.

Bogus E-mail Circulated an Increase in Cost of Living for Social Security Beneficiaries

A cost of living increase occurs when the Consumer Price Index for Urban Wage Earners and Clerical Workers from the third quarter of the year that the last COLA was approved is compared to the current third quarter cost of living and, based on that comparison, a cost of living adjustment is deemed necessary. Since there was no increase in the index, there was no COLA this year. However, many people who read the chain e-mail believed they'd be receiving an increase.

Experts advise against putting any stock in e-mail messages given the uncertainty of their source and suggest contacting the agency involved for official information. Governmental agencies do not send out mass e-mails to millions of recipients, so any e-mail identified as coming from the Social Security Administration or the military should be reviewed carefully, with a follow-up contact to the respective agency, before relying on the information in the e-mail.

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Don't fall for the bogus COLA online claims