No increase for Md. pensions next month

For the first time since Maryland instituted annual cost-of-living adjustments for pensions were instituted in 1971, retirees and beneficiaries won't see an increase in their checks next month.

The Consumer Price Index, a common measure of inflation, fell in 2009. Retirement payments for 115,000 people were set to drop in July with them, but the General Assembly held benefits steady and plans to cut the amount added this year from any increase next year.

Without that intervention, payments would have fallen about $6 a month for the average beneficiary collecting about $20,000 a year.

Since the State Retirement Agency alerted retirees, the agency has received about 160 calls from retirees — some of them confused, some upset. In the last decade, annual increases ranged from 1.6 percent to 3.8 percent.
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Information from: The Baltimore Sun

-- Associated Press