Budget Would Increase Poor, Study Finds

The curbs on cost-of-living adjustments for Social Security and other programs proposed in the Administration’s compromise budget would move 650,000 people below the poverty line in the next three years, the Congressional Budget Office said today.

Under the compromise budget agreed to last week by President Reagan and the Senate Republican leaders, cost-of-living adjustments would be limited to a 2% increase next year. In the following two years, the 2% cap would still apply unless inflation topped 4%.

The nonpartisan budget office said in a memorandum that two-thirds of the new poor would be elderly as a result of the cost-of-living changes in Social Security, railroad retirement, military retirement and civil service retirement benefits.