Author: Elizabeth Blessing
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Seniors leaving Medicare Advantage for Original Medicare outside a guaranteed-issue window can be refused Medigap, and Original Medicare alone has no yearly cap on costs
Seniors who drop a Medicare Advantage plan for Original Medicare can find the door to Medigap closed. Medicare.gov says there is no federal guarantee that an insurance company will sell a Medigap policy outside a short list of protected situations, and a company can turn down an applicant over health. Original Medicare on its own…
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Social Security pays a widow or widower up to 100% of the late spouse’s benefit when the survivor waits until full retirement age to claim survivor benefits
Social Security pays a widow or widower up to 100% of a late spouse’s benefit, but only when the survivor holds off until full retirement age for survivor benefits. Claiming earlier means a smaller monthly check. For many households that timing is one of the biggest money decisions that follows a death. The Social Security…
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Social Security beneficiaries paid by birth date get their last checks before the 3.6% raise Dec. 9, 16 and 23, then the first raised checks Jan. 13, 20 and 27
Social Security beneficiaries who are paid on a Wednesday according to their birth date will get their last checks before the 3.6% cost-of-living raise on Dec. 9, 16 and 23. The first raised checks arrive a few weeks later, on Jan. 13, 20 and 27. The Social Security Administration announced the 3.6% increase for 2027…
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Social Security withholds half of a beneficiary’s monthly check by default to recover overpayments in notices issued since April 25, 2025, unless a lower rate is negotiated
Social Security now holds back half of a person’s monthly benefit by default to collect an overpayment, up from 10 percent. The higher rate covers overpayment notices sent on or after April 25, 2025, and a lower rate happens only when one is separately negotiated. The Social Security Administration (SSA) put the change in a…
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Social Security usually pays benefits the month after they are due, so November deposits cover October’s benefit, while SSI pays in the month it covers
Social Security pays each month’s benefit in the month after it is due, which means the deposit that lands in November is the benefit for October. Supplemental Security Income, known as SSI, is the separate program for people with limited income and resources, and it runs on a different clock. SSI pays in the month…
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Trump’s 2025 law has more than 80,000 Kentuckians, including 24,655 children and 6,572 seniors, losing access to food stamps, Gov. Andy Beshear says
Gov. Andy Beshear says more than 80,000 Kentuckians are losing access to SNAP, the food benefit many people still call food stamps. He blames changes in President Trump’s 2025 budget law, and says the total includes 24,655 children and 6,572 seniors. The numbers went out in letters dated Oct. 14. The governor wrote to U.S.…
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Social Security wrongly denied about 600 disabled-child claims, its watchdog estimates
Social Security’s own watchdog says employees wrongly turned down an estimated 600 disabled-child claims by not following the agency’s policies. All of those claims were approved later, but only after a denial that should not have happened. The Social Security Administration’s Office of the Inspector General reviewed child’s insurance benefit claims that were first denied…
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Older SSI cases that include an essential person get $516 a month for that person starting with the December 31 payment
Supplemental Security Income cases that include an essential person will see that person’s amount rise to $516 a month for 2027. Social Security’s actuaries list the figure in their 2027 SSI amounts table, up from $5,978.41 a year in 2026 to $6,193.63 a year before rounding. The higher SSI payments begin on December 31, 2026,…
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Heating oil averaged $6.14 a gallon in EIA’s latest survey, $2.60 above last year
Households that heat with oil are starting the season at a steep price. The U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) put the national average for residential heating oil at $6.14 a gallon for the week of October 12, 2026, which is $2.60 higher than a year earlier. The exact figure in EIA’s weekly heating oil survey…
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Social Security’s watchdog estimates about 1,100 disabled-child beneficiaries were paid incorrectly, with roughly $1.2 million in underpayments
Social Security’s Office of the Inspector General estimates that about 1,100 people approved for child’s insurance benefits were paid incorrectly after their claims were first denied as not disabled. About $1.2 million of the mistakes were underpayments, money that should have reached disabled beneficiaries and did not. The agency’s own watchdog published the findings on…