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 bureau analyst discovered the error in the Consumer Price Index in June 2000 – but it took more than a year to correct the payments.
Social Security checks increase each year, depending on inflation. The rate should have been set at 2.5 percent, but was 2.4 percent.