Retirees Will Not Receive 2009 COLA
Date Posted: February 6, 2009
Category: Retirees
Retired members of the South Carolina Retirement System (SCRS) and the Police Officers Retirement System (PORS) will not receive a cost-of-living adjustment (COLA) effective July 1, 2009.
Effective July 1, 2008, state law requires that eligible retired members of SCRS and PORS receive an automatic COLA of up to 2 percent if the Consumer Price Index for Wage Earners and Clerical Workers (CPI-W) as of the previous December 31 is at least 2 percent. If the CPI is less than 2 percent, the automatic COLA would equal the increase in the CPI-W.
As of December 31, 2008, the CPI-W for the previous 12-month period was negative .5 percent. Because the CPI-W was negative, there will not be a cost-of-living adjustment for retirees this July 1.
State law benchmarks the provision of automatic retiree COLAs on the Consumer Price Index for Wage Earners and Clerical Workers.