Senior squeeze

Officially, the inflation rate may be negligible, but senior citizens have seen their purchasing power erode by 32% since 2000, according to The Senior Citizens League, a nonpartisan group that lobbies for seniors' rights to benefits. The rising price of food is a major culprit, according to the group's annual survey of seniors' costs. Since 2000, the prices of potatoes and eggs have roughly doubled, a loaf of white bread is up by over half and oranges are up 72%. While benefit checks over the past decade have increased by 31%, seniors' typical expenses have risen by 73%, the study found. Aside from food, the cost of heating oil has nearly doubled, gasoline is up 131% and Medicare premiums are on the rise. Because of the higher prices for everyday goods, the league is lobbying to tie future cost-of-living adjustments to the Consumer Price Index for Elderly Consumers, which the government has been tracking since 1983, rather than the CPI for Urban Wage Earners and Clerical Workers, which tracks the spending habits of younger workers. The adjustment would add about 30 basis points to the current index, which would compound over time, said Mary Johnson, a Social Security and Medicare policy analyst with the league.