Main Street Dollars

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Social Security’s own numbers show the initial disability claims backlog climbed by 22,000 people between February and June of this year, even as the agency told Congress the same backlog had fallen by more than 30 percent from its 2024 peak. For a household waiting on a first decision on a Social Security Disability Insurance…

Social Security cancelled the annual review that was supposed to lift the $9,200 cap on disability representatives’ fees

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in Social Security

The Social Security Administration has quietly dropped a promise it made in 2024 to hold an annual January review of the $9,200 cap on what a disability representative can collect from a client’s back pay. That review was due to start this January. It never happened, and the agency has told the public in writing…

Federal replacement of stolen food stamp benefits ended in December 2024, and no state issues chip cards

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in Fraud & Scams

Thousands of SNAP households who watched their monthly grocery money vanish to a card-skimming scheme built their recovery plan around a federal repayment rule that quietly expired in December 2024. Congress has not brought that authority back since, which means anyone skimmed after that date is depending on whatever their own state chooses to do,…

A court vacated five states’ food stamp purchase bans in June, and USDA has not restored them

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Grocery-aisle purchase rules that Colorado, Iowa, Nebraska, Tennessee and West Virginia spent much of 2025 negotiating with Washington are still frozen, nearly three months after a federal judge threw out the approvals behind them. None of the five states’ soda, candy or energy-drink restrictions has taken effect, and the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s own program…

Stores that cannot stock 84 items lose the right to accept food stamp cards on November 4

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Ten years after Congress first ordered a tougher stocking test for small grocers, the rule is finally set to bite. Beginning Nov. 4, 2026, any Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program retailer other than a specialty food store — most corner stores, dollar stores, gas station marts and small groceries — must keep a minimum of 84…

States cannot make anyone aged 60 to 64 join a food stamp work program

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Turning 60 used to mean falling out of a federal food-stamp work-hour countdown entirely. Now the countdown reaches to 64, thanks to a provision inside the 2025 tax-and-spending law, and states have been told in writing exactly where the new age band still gets a break. Anyone between 60 and 64 can still be asked…

Home heating oil costs 52 percent more than a year ago, and the heating season has not started

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in Utilities & Energy

The Bureau of Labor Statistics’ latest Consumer Price Index report shows home heating oil prices up 52 percent over the 12 months ending in August, the sharpest increase of any energy category the agency tracks. That number is already on the books even though the heating season for most oil-burning furnaces typically does not start…

Forty-three states must require 80 hours a month from Medicaid enrollees starting January 1

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Medicaid coverage for millions of working-age adults now comes with a monthly paperwork requirement attached. Under a rule the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services published in June, 43 states and the District of Columbia must build systems to check whether certain enrollees logged a set number of hours in work, schooling, or community service…

Food stamps for a seven-person household rise to $1,616 a month on October 1

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The U.S. Department of Agriculture has finalized the maximum monthly food stamp benefit for the fiscal year beginning October 1, 2026, and the size of the increase depends heavily on how many people live in the household claiming it. A household of seven people in the 48 contiguous states or Washington, D.C. will see its…

The White House named 30 states for the promised exchange refunds and left out the other 20

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