Retirees receive a little extra green

The biggest Social Security benefits increase in 26 years didn’t stop Dorothy Potts from digging through the neighbors’ recycled newspapers for an extra two-for-one breakfast bowl coupon from Jack in the Box.

Small and bespectacled, with close-cropped hair, Potts, 80, seemed as proud of the extra meal sitting beside her at the fast-food restaurant — she was planning to take it home and freeze it — as of her own hard-won frugality.

“When you get old, you have to be very clever,” laugh Potts, who lives near Fairway Village golf course.

Potts has spent 20 years in a battle of wits with her Social Security check. But this weekend, she and the rest of the nation’s retired and disabled citizens got a boost: a 5.8 percent raise. For the average retired worker, that’s an extra $63 per month, for a monthly check of $1,153.

Even so, several senior citizens in Vancouver said Saturday that most of their extra money will go toward essentials or unpaid bills, not exciting new expenses.

Why the hike in benefits? Last year, oil prices drove up the cost of living. In October, the federal government used that trend to determine the size of 2009 Social Security checks. In November, prices started to fall faster than they have since the Great Depression — but Social Security checks won’t reflect that drop until 2010.

For seniors, it all adds up to a “fixed income” that doesn’t feel so fixed, at least for now.

“That $70, $80 isn’t going to change your life, but it’s nice,” said Ellen Delmastro, 80, sitting with Potts at the east Vancouver fast-food joint.

For the first time, Delmastro said, she’s headed to Mesa, Ariz., this spring to see her beloved Chicago Cubs prepare for baseball season.

Delmastro said she couldn’t have afforded the trip if her hospitalizations hadn’t been covered by her late husband’s medical benefits.

This month’s check will be the first Social Security raise ever for Cheryl Boyd, 65, of east Vancouver.

Boyd signed up for the program when she retired in November, but the payments are less than her old salary, she said. For a couple accustomed to living paycheck-to-paycheck, she said, retirement was a shock.

The extra money will probably go toward groceries, said Boyd, who was shopping for used furniture at an east Vancouver thrift store.

“We don’t eat out too often, but I think we need to cut back on that, too,” Boyd said. “My husband, he’s younger than I am, but he’s on a lot of prescriptions. I’m not, thank God.”

Down the aisle from Boyd, Ruth Mitchell of Hazel Dell searched a used-clothing rack for a pair of off-white pants in her size.

Overdue doctor bills would eat up all her extra Social Security cash, she said.

“I gotta pay my medical group, or they’re going to turn me in to a credit agency,” said Mitchell, 80.

Mitchell said she lives on about $1,000 a month from Social Security, plus $322 from pensions for her work at Nabisco and Frito-Lay. Her monthly rent is $627.

“It isn’t enough to live on,” she said.

As she turned back to flip through the rack of cream-colored pants, Mitchell said she was sure she’ll find a way to make things work in 2009.

“There ain’t a mountain I can’t climb,” she said rhythmically, as if chanting the phrase to herself. “Not one, not one. If I can’t climb it, I’ll take a scooter.”

Michael Andersen: 360-735-4508 or michael.andersen@columbian.com.