Author: Elizabeth Blessing
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Food stamp households in Missouri applying or recertifying must hand over a lease or utility bill now, or the state cuts the deduction that sets the benefit
Missouri food stamp paperwork now needs proof, not just a signed statement. Since October 1, 2026, households that apply, recertify or add a person to a SNAP case have to document what they pay for rent, mortgage and utilities, along with child care costs and bank balances. A cost that cannot be documented does not…
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Social Security stops the withholding until it decides if an overpayment notice is answered inside 30 days with form SSA-561-U2
Social Security holds off collecting an overpayment while it decides a request, if the request arrives inside 30 days of the date on the notice. The agency’s overpayment page puts it plainly: “If you ask for a waiver or appeal within 30 days, we won’t collect the money until we decide on your request.” The…
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The IRS wipes a late-filing penalty of any size for filers with three clean years, or twelve straight clean quarters for quarterly filers
The IRS is now erasing failure-to-file, failure-to-pay and failure-to-deposit penalties of any size for taxpayers with a clean three-year record, or 12 consecutive clean quarters for those who file quarterly. The agency announced the Automatic Exemption from Penalty in news release IR-2026-83 on July 8, 2026, and says eligible taxpayers do not have to ask…
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New Jersey homeowners 65 and older with 2025 income up to $172,475 have until November 2 to file the PAS-1 for the Senior Freeze
New Jersey homeowners who want the Senior Freeze for the 2025 tax year have until Monday, November 2, 2026 to file. The state’s Division of Taxation property tax relief page says so in as many words: “The deadline for the 2025 application is November 2, 2026.” The application is the PAS-1, the combined property tax…
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Cleo cash-advance refunds arrive by PayPal only, and the FTC asks recipients to accept the payment within 30 days
The Federal Trade Commission is sending more than $15.8 million back to people who paid Cleo AI for instant cash advances, and every payment goes out through PayPal. The agency says it will send 2,124,796 PayPal payments, starting Oct. 27, 2026. The FTC’s Cleo AI refund page names PayPal and no other method. Its instruction…
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Indiana pays its energy assistance straight to the utility company in a single annual payment, with a direct-pay option that mails it to the household
Indiana’s Energy Assistance Program is open for the 2027 program year, and the money goes to the utility, not into a bank account. The state’s benefit is a one-time annual payment sent straight to the household’s utility vendor to cover heating and electric costs. The Indiana Housing and Community Development Authority runs the program. Its…
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Treasury says a Trump order’s new payment screening stopped about 13,500 federal payments worth $175 million before they reached dead people
The Treasury Department says its new payment screening has identified and returned about 13,500 federal payments, worth $175 million, that would have gone to people who had died. The money was stopped before it was disbursed. Treasury announced the figure October 6, and says the work follows a Trump executive order signed in March 2025.…
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The $500 Obamacare refund checks began going out September 30, an administration official says, and the 20 states that run their own exchanges get none
The Trump administration has started mailing $500 checks to people who bought Obamacare coverage on HealthCare.gov without any premium assistance. An administration official told ABC News the checks went out beginning Wednesday, September 30. The 20 states that run their own health insurance exchanges are not part of the program. Which 30 states are getting…
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SSI auditors found 54 of 208 recipients with an unreported vehicle, and eight of them were over the resource limit
Auditors at the Social Security Administration’s Office of the Inspector General found that 54 of 208 Supplemental Security Income recipients they reviewed owned a vehicle they had not reported. Eight of those 54 were over the resource limit, which made them ineligible for $40,474 in SSI payments. The findings are in a September 15, 2026…
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Trump signed the Clergy Act, letting ministers who opted out of Social Security apply to the IRS to come back in for tax years beginning after 2028
President Donald Trump signed H.R. 227, known as the Clergy Act, on Tuesday, October 20, 2026. The law gives ministers who once opted out of Social Security a way to apply to the Internal Revenue Service to come back in, with the change starting in a tax year that begins after 2028. It is a…