Chris McKenna is reporting at The Fray Sen. Charles Schumer has announced his support for a year-old bill that would provide compensation to social-security recipients to help offset their stagnant income. The SAVE Benefits Act, introduced last year, would have provided one-time payments of approximately $580 to recipients of social security, disability payments and veterans' benefits after it was learned payments would stay flat because inflation was so low. Only Democrats supported the bill, and it went nowhere. Interest in the proposal was revived last month when the latest inflation calculations showed benefits next year would increase by only $5 a month. Schumer said in a press release, “Millions of New York City seniors, veterans, and individuals who are disabled, need and deserve a fairer amount of money in their Social Security checks to help pay for the ever-increasing cost of rent, medicine and groceries.” Advocates argue the COLA formula is unfair to seniors because it undervalues the economic factors that have a direct impact on them, like medical care and housing. The flat COLA touches a lot of households in the region. As of January 2016, approximately 140,000 residents, or more than one in five, in Orange, Ulster and Sullivan counties, received some form of federal benefits. Read the full story at The Fray at HudsonValley [dot] com.