What would you do if you were one year away from your earliest shot at Social Security — and still not sure it would be enough to survive? That question was sitting quietly on Yvonne Fitzgerald’s face when I first noticed her across the waiting room of a Social Security Administration field office in Spokane, Washington, on a gray Tuesday morning in late March 2026.
I was there reporting on how local residents were processing the SSA’s announced 2.8% COLA increase for 2026 — a figure that sounds reassuring until you do the math on what it actually means for people living close to the edge. Yvonne, 61, had taken a number and was staring at the floor with her coat folded neatly on her lap. She didn’t look angry. She looked tired.
I introduced myself. She hesitated, then said, “You can talk to me, but I don’t want anyone I know to see this.” That embarrassment — quiet, bone-deep — shaped every minute of the two hours we ended up spending together that day.
A Raise That Made Things Worse
Yvonne has driven for Uber in the Spokane area for nearly five years. When her husband, Gerald, took early retirement in the fall of 2024 at age 63, the household dynamic shifted. His monthly income dropped sharply, and Yvonne started logging more hours behind the wheel to compensate — sometimes 50 to 55 hours a week.
By early 2025, her gross earnings had climbed from roughly $28,000 a year to around $36,000. For a few months, that felt like breathing room. “We went out to eat more. We bought a used sectional for the living room. Gerald got a fishing boat — nothing fancy, but still,” she told me.
What Yvonne hadn’t fully accounted for was the cost of driving more: higher fuel expenses, faster vehicle wear, and increased self-employment taxes. As a gig worker, she pays both the employee and employer share of Social Security and Medicare taxes — 12.4% and 2.9% respectively, as outlined by the Social Security Administration. After expenses and taxes, that $36,000 gross shrank considerably.
Meanwhile, the household’s Spokane property tax bill — roughly $2,100 per year — had gone unpaid for two cycles. By the time I met her, the outstanding balance with penalties had grown to approximately $3,400.
Sitting in That Waiting Room for a Reason
Yvonne turned 61 in January 2026. That birthday triggered something. She started reading about Social Security — when to file, how much she might receive, what happens if you claim early. The more she read, the more confused she felt. So she drove to the SSA office herself.
“I didn’t want to call. I didn’t trust I’d understand it over the phone,” she said. “I needed someone to sit across from me and explain it like I was a normal person.”
What she had pieced together on her own was roughly accurate: she could file for Social Security retirement benefits as early as age 62, but doing so would permanently reduce her monthly payment. Her SSA online account — which she’d finally set up the week before — showed an estimated benefit of around $870 per month if she claimed at 62, versus approximately $1,240 per month if she waited until her Full Retirement Age of 67.
The math was stark. But the pressure of the property tax debt, Gerald’s reduced income, and the physical demands of driving nearly 50 hours a week made waiting feel abstract. “Five years from now feels like another lifetime,” she told me. “Right now I’ve got a tax notice threatening a lien on my house.”
The COLA Reality — and What It Doesn’t Fix
Part of what brought Yvonne to the SSA office that morning was a conversation she’d had with a neighbor who was already collecting benefits. The neighbor had mentioned the 2026 COLA — the 2.8% increase that the SSA officially announced in October 2025, affecting roughly 75 million Americans. It sounded like good news.
But Yvonne had also read that Medicare Part B premiums had risen alongside that COLA, which means the net gain for many dual enrollees — people receiving both Social Security and Medicare — was considerably smaller than 2.8% on paper. As 247 Wall St. reported, this pattern of COLA increases being offset by Medicare premium hikes is a recurring problem, and analysts warn it could happen again with the 2027 adjustment.
Yvonne won’t be on Medicare for another three and a half years. But she’s already thinking about what that transition looks like — particularly since she has no employer-sponsored health coverage as a gig worker. “I don’t have insurance right now. I’ve been putting off a knee thing for two years because I can’t afford to deal with it,” she said, looking down at her hands. “That’s what keeps me driving. I need something to change.”
The Conversation She Didn’t Expect to Have
After about 40 minutes with an SSA representative, Yvonne came back to the waiting room to gather her things. She looked both more informed and more weighted down — the expression of someone who got the real answer to a question they’d half hoped wouldn’t be so complicated.
The representative had confirmed her estimated benefit figures and walked her through how delayed filing affects lifetime totals. Yvonne had also asked about whether Gerald’s retirement benefit might affect her own options — a question about spousal benefits she hadn’t fully considered before.
That detail — spousal benefits — was the pivot point of her visit. Depending on Gerald’s earnings history and when he files, Yvonne may qualify to receive up to 50% of his Full Retirement Age benefit, which could potentially exceed what her own work record produces. It’s a calculation that requires personalized review, but it reframed her thinking about whether she needed to rush to file at 62.
Where Things Stand Now
When I followed up with Yvonne by phone two weeks later, she hadn’t made any decisions. The property tax situation was still unresolved — she’d spoken to Spokane County’s treasurer’s office about a payment plan and was waiting on paperwork. Gerald had started looking into his own SSA filing timeline more seriously, which in turn affects what Yvonne might be eligible for.
“I’m not ready to stop driving. But I’m also not going to be able to do this at 65, 66,” she said. “My knees are bad. My back is bad. This job doesn’t get easier.” She paused. “I just wish I had started thinking about all of this ten years ago.”
Yvonne’s story isn’t a cautionary tale with a tidy ending. She left the SSA office with more information than she walked in with, but also with a clearer view of how much still needs to fall into place before retirement becomes real. The 2.8% COLA that made headlines this year means approximately $24 more per month for the average beneficiary. For someone in Yvonne’s position, that number lands differently — not as a raise, but as a reminder of how thin the margins are.
As I drove back through Spokane that afternoon, I kept thinking about what she’d said at the very end of our conversation: that the hardest part wasn’t the debt or the math. It was sitting in that waiting room, hoping no one she knew would walk in. There are a lot of people sitting in waiting rooms just like it, carrying the same quiet weight. Most of them never get asked what brought them there.
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