The U.S. Social Security Administration has announced that there will be no cost-of-living adjustments (COLAs) in Social Security benefits in 2011. This is the second year in a row that benefits will be frozen. The reason for the freeze is that by law, any increases are tied to increases in the Consumer Price Index for Urban Wage Earners and Clerical Workers (CPI-CW) in a certain calendar quarter. Because there was no increase in this index during that quarter, there is no COLA.
OLR backgrounder (2009-R-0385) provides a history of Social Security COLAs.
