Senior citizens brace for Social Security freeze

Senior citizens brace for Social Security freeze

MATT SEDENSKY, Associated Press Writer

BOCA RATON, Fla. — Seniors prepared to cut back on everything from food to charitable donations to whiskey as word spread Monday that they will have to wait until at least 2012 to see their Social Security checks increase.

The government is expected to announce this week that more than 58 million Social Security recipients will go through a second straight year without an increase in monthly benefits. This year was the first without an increase since automatic adjustments for inflation started in 1975....