Author: Elizabeth Blessing
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Skipping a Medicare drug plan adds a 1% penalty for each month without coverage, and it lasts as long as the person has Part D
A person who puts off joining a Medicare drug plan does not just lose a few months of coverage. Once 63 days pass without any prescription drug coverage after becoming eligible for Medicare, the government adds a permanent surcharge to whatever Part D premium comes next, set at 1% for every full month the gap…
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Social Security mishandled 63% of overpayments in which the beneficiary had asked for an explanation, auditors found
A watchdog inside the Social Security Administration set out to answer a narrow question: when a beneficiary who owed an overpayment asked the agency to explain it, did Social Security handle that request the way its own policy requires. The Office of the Inspector General’s answer, published September 1, was that the agency got it…
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Ex-spouses married at least 10 years may collect on a former partner’s Social Security record, and those payments don’t count toward the family maximum
A divorced spouse whose marriage lasted at least 10 years can qualify for a Social Security payment based on a former spouse’s earnings record, separate from whatever that former spouse’s current household receives. Social Security treats an ex-spouse’s payment as its own category: it does not shrink because the worker remarried, and it does not…
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A surviving spouse can collect up to 100% of a late spouse’s Social Security benefit at full retirement age
Reaching survivor full retirement age unlocks the largest payment Social Security offers a widow or widower: 100 percent of what a late spouse’s own benefit would have been. Filing earlier, starting at the minimum age of 60, locks in a smaller share instead, one that starts at 71.5 percent and grows the longer filing is…
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Social Security automatically withholds 50% of a monthly check to recover an overpayment, but an appeal filed within 30 days pauses collection
Social Security automatically withholds 50 percent of a monthly retirement, survivor or disability check once it decides a beneficiary was overpaid, and it keeps taking that share every month until the balance reaches zero. The same notice that sets the 50 percent withholding rate also opens a 30-day window, and a beneficiary who files an…
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Identity-theft victims waited 20 months on average for the IRS to process their tax cases, a watchdog found
A taxpayer whose identity was stolen and used to file a fraudulent tax return waited 20 months, on average, for the Internal Revenue Service to resolve the case and release a refund, a new federal audit found. The finding comes from the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration, the independent office that audits IRS operations,…
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When a Medicare Advantage plan leaves, its members get a guaranteed right to buy Medigap for up to 63 days after coverage ends
Losing a Medicare Advantage plan does not have to mean losing the chance to buy a Medigap policy without a health screening. Federal rules give members whose Medicare Advantage plan leaves Medicare or leaves their service area a guaranteed-issue right, one that requires an insurer to sell a Medigap policy regardless of health history, and…
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About 25,000 eight-drawer dressers are recalled for tip-over danger, and owners get a free retrofit kit
Dressers tall enough to tip over onto a small child are covered by a federal furniture-stability standard, and about 25,073 Aitjunz-brand eight-drawer dressers fail it, according to a recall the Consumer Product Safety Commission announced on September 24, 2026. Rather than a refund, owners of the recalled dressers qualify for a free retrofit kit built…
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A bank impostor who cheated elderly victims out of hundreds of thousands of dollars got 57 months, and agents seized $37,000 in cash
Franco Fuentes and his associates did not need to break into an account online. They called elderly victims by phone, posed as bank employees investigating fraud on the account, and talked victims into handing a bank card to a rideshare driver sent to the door. A federal judge in San Diego sentenced Fuentes, 30, of…
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About 43,700 light-up children’s toys are recalled because kids can reach the button batteries, and buyers get a full refund
A federal safety standard written specifically to keep small button batteries out of children’s reach is the reason about 43,700 light-up toys sold by ABC Trading no longer meet CPSC requirements, and the company is refunding every buyer in full rather than offering a repair kit. The commission says children can access the battery compartment…