WASHINGTON – Thanks to a $1 billion government goof, Americans on Social Security are getting a surprise $19 bonus check next week.
That’s the amount each Social Security recipient has been shortchanged since January 2000 -all because of a computer glitch that caused the Bureau of Labor Statistics to understate the inflation rate by .1 percent.
The total amount that’s been underpaid -and has to be made up -is $1 billion, said Social Security spokesman Rich Hensley.
The payments will go out Monday to 45 million retirement beneficiaries and 6 million recipients of Supplemental Security, a cash-assistance program for the needy.
Hensley said a BLS analyst discovered the error in the Consumer Price Index in June 2000 -but it took more than a year to correct the payments.
“You look at the Bureau of Labor Statistics error and the ramifications of everyone it would affect. It takes time,” he said.
Social Security checks increase in value each year, depending on the inflation rate.
The rate should have been set at 2.5 percent, but instead it was set at 2.4 percent.
Hensley said the bonus checks will come out of the Social Security trust fund and won’t hurt the program’s long-term solvency.