Indexing in social policy is defined as:

• A. A periodic process of adjusting social benefits or wages to account for increases in the cost of living
• B. A method for ranking social policies
• C. A way to index tax brackets to inflation
• D. A form of wage suppression

Answer: (A)

Indexing in social policy means adjusting benefits or wages on a regular schedule to match changes in the cost of living. This keeps the real value of payments from shrinking when prices rise. A common example is a yearly cost-of-living adjustment for pension or Social Security benefits, tied to a consumer price index. In contrast, this concept isn’t about ranking policies, nor is it primarily about tax brackets, and it isn’t about suppressing wages. The core idea is to preserve purchasing power by tying payments to inflation.