Main Street Dollars

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Social Security has begun comparing pension records for about 125,000 retired federal employees against its own Medicare files, under a data-sharing agreement with the Office of Personnel Management that took effect this week. The goal is narrow: catch civil service annuitants whose reported income no longer lines up with what a low-income prescription drug subsidy…

The smallest food stamp check is $25 in most states, $49 in rural Alaska

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in Government Programs

Every October, the U.S. Department of Agriculture recalculates the smallest monthly SNAP payment a household of one or two people can receive, and the newest adjustment lifts that floor to $25 across the 48 contiguous states and Washington, D.C. In the most remote stretch of rural Alaska, the same floor climbs to $49 a month.…

More than a third of Americans live in an area where the federal rent ceiling falls on October 1

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in Housing & Rent

Every October 1, the Department of Housing and Urban Development resets the rent figure that anchors billions of dollars in housing subsidies, from Section 8 vouchers to homeless-assistance grants. This year’s reset, effective October 1, 2026, sends that figure down in areas home to more than a third of the U.S. population, even as it…

The IRS now freezes a refund when a return arrives without bank details, and it sends that warning only once

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in Refunds

A tax refund that stalls in IRS processing used to have one dependable backstop: if the bank account on file didn’t work, a paper check eventually showed up anyway, no extra steps required. That backstop is gone for the 2026 filing season. Any Form 1040 return that reaches the IRS without valid direct deposit information…

Hawaii is the only state where the maximum food stamp benefit drops October 1

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in Government Programs

Federal nutrition officials finalized next year’s food stamp numbers this fall, and forty-eight states plus Alaska, Guam, the District of Columbia and the U.S. Virgin Islands are all getting a raise. Hawaii is not. For a four-person household on the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, the maximum monthly benefit falls from $1,689 to $1,655 once the…

The Federal Trade Commission raised the maximum Amazon Prime refund from $51 to $200, and a new round of automatic payments begins October 1

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in Settlements & Claims

Amazon customers who signed up for Prime without meaning to — or who got stuck trying to cancel — are about to see a bigger check than the settlement first promised. A federal court in Seattle approved a revised payout plan this month that lifts the ceiling on what any one customer can collect from…

A Medicare Advantage cancellation letter opens a 63-day right to buy Medigap without a health review

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in Medicare

A notice from a Medicare Advantage insurer announcing it is leaving a county rarely reads like good news. But under federal rules, that same cancellation letter opens a narrow right most recipients never learn about: for a set stretch of days, an insurance company selling Medigap policies in that state cannot turn the recipient down,…

The IRS says it found more than 600 social media accounts impersonating the agency

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in Fraud & Scams

A profile picture built around the agency’s own eagle seal, a fabricated case number, and a link promising a stalled refund: that is the anatomy of the fake account the Internal Revenue Service says it has been tracking by the hundreds. In its newest annual scam list, the agency counted more than 600 social media…

The FTC is sending AT&T throttling refunds by Zelle, and says it never asks anyone to send money to get one

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in Settlements & Claims

A Zelle deposit landing in a bank account this month, tagged with a note about a decade-old wireless plan, is not a phishing attempt for one specific group of former AT&T customers. The Federal Trade Commission confirmed it is now sending Zelle payments to people who were mailed a refund check or offered a PayPal…

Marketplace premiums rose more than 50% on average this year after the enhanced tax credits expired in December

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