Main Street Dollars

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When Social Security checks are trimmed for people who keep working, only one kind of income is measured. The agency’s retirement earnings test looks at wages and net self-employment earnings, and it leaves out pensions, annuities and investment income. A retiree under full retirement age can have a sizable pension and a brokerage account without…

The FTC’s Funeral Rule lets families buy only the funeral goods and services they want and requires an itemized price list

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in Consumer Rights

Families arranging a funeral do not have to accept a bundled package. Under the Federal Trade Commission’s Funeral Rule, they can buy only the goods and services they want, and every funeral home has to hand over an itemized price list. The same rule says a casket bought somewhere else cannot be refused or charged…

Workers who lose a job can usually keep their employer’s health plan for up to 18 months under COBRA, at up to 102 percent of the cost

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in Insurance

People who lose a job at a company with 20 or more employees can usually stay on the employer’s health plan for up to 18 months under a federal law called COBRA. The catch is the price. The plan can charge up to 102 percent of its cost, which means the worker pays the share…

Grandchildren who lived with a grandparent since before 18 and got at least half their support there can draw on that Social Security record if parents are disabled or dead

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Social Security can pay benefits to a grandchild on a grandparent’s record, but only when three main conditions line up. The grandchild’s parents have to be disabled or dead, the grandchild has to have lived with the grandparent since before turning 18, and the grandparent has to have provided at least half of the grandchild’s…

Social Security survivor benefits generally require at least nine months of marriage before the worker’s death

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A widow or widower generally has to have been married to the worker for at least nine months before the death to collect Social Security survivor benefits. A shorter marriage does not always close the door, because federal rules carve out several exceptions. For anyone widowed after a brief marriage, which category the marriage falls…

Taxpayers in the Oglala Sioux Tribe area hit by the June storms have until February 1, 2027 to file various federal returns and make tax payments, the IRS says

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in Rule Changes

The IRS has pushed a long list of federal tax deadlines to February 1, 2027 for people and businesses in the Oglala Sioux Tribe area who were hit by the storms that began June 2, 2026. The relief covers many returns and payments, but not all of them, and it does not cover taxes that…

A spouse of any age caring for the worker’s child under 16 can collect Social Security on the worker’s record

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A husband or wife of any age can collect Social Security on a worker’s record while caring for the worker’s child who is under 16. The age-62 rule that applies to most spouses does not apply in that case. The rule sits in the federal regulations, 20 CFR 404.330, which says a spouse qualifies either…

Social Security’s deemed-filing rule makes anyone born after January 1, 1954 apply for their own and any spousal benefit together

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Anyone born after January 1, 1954, meaning on or after January 2, 1954, who applies for either a Social Security retirement benefit or a spouse’s benefit is treated as applying for both. The rule is called deemed filing, and it applies at any age, so claiming early does not let a person take just one.…

Social Security can generally fix a mistake in a worker’s earnings record only within 3 years, 3 months and 15 days after the year the earnings were received

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A wrong number on a worker’s Social Security earnings record is easiest to fix in the first few years. After that, the Social Security Administration can correct it only in a short list of situations. The rule is a flat clock that starts when the calendar year of the earnings ends. The federal regulation says…

SNAP shoppers in Colorado, Iowa, Tennessee and West Virginia can still buy soda and candy after a federal court vacated those states’ USDA waivers

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