Author: Elizabeth Blessing
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Summer electric-bill help is still open in many states through the LIHEAP cooling program
Most people think of home energy assistance as a winter program, something to help with the heating bill when it gets cold. But the same federal program helps with summer cooling too, and in many states the door is still open. If a hot-weather electric bill is stretching your budget, there may be a one-time…
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Marketplace health premiums are more than doubling, about $1,000 a year more, as enhanced ACA tax credits lapse
If you buy your health insurance through the marketplace, brace yourself for a much bigger bill. The enhanced tax credits that quietly held down premiums for millions of people have expired, and the change is landing squarely on household budgets. On average, analysts estimate marketplace enrollees will pay roughly double what they did before, about…
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Home insurers are dropping loyal customers, with non-renewals up as much as 216% since 2018 in disaster-prone areas
You can pay your home insurance bill on time for years and still open the mailbox to find your company has decided not to renew you. That is happening more often, and now there are hard numbers to show it. A first-of-its-kind national report finds that company-initiated non-renewals have climbed steeply since 2018, hitting hardest…
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Michigan storm victims in 30-plus counties get until November 2 to file
Michigan families still cleaning up from this spring’s storms just got a little breathing room from the tax collector. The IRS has postponed a batch of federal filing and payment deadlines to November 2, 2026 for individuals and businesses across more than 30 counties. Best of all, the extra time is automatic, so most people…
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The new tax law lifted the state and local tax write-off from $10,000 to $40,000 for many homeowners
For years, many homeowners in high-tax states did the math at tax time and gave up on itemizing. The write-off for their state and local taxes was capped so low that the standard deduction won every time. A 2025 law just changed that math, and for a lot of households it is now worth pulling…
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The child tax credit is now permanently $2,200 per child, with up to $1,700 paid back as a refund
For families raising kids, the child tax credit is one of the biggest numbers on a tax return, and it was set to shrink. Instead, a 2025 law locked it in place and even nudged it up. For most families with children, that means a larger credit that will not quietly fall back down next…
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Retired teachers, police and firefighters are collecting up to $587 more a month after Congress repealed two Social Security cuts
For decades, a lot of retired teachers, police officers, and firefighters watched their Social Security checks come in far smaller than they expected, or not at all, because of two rules most people had never heard of. Congress repealed both of those rules, and the result has been real money landing in real bank accounts.…
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UnitedHealthcare may drop Medicare Advantage plans in 34 counties across 12 states
Millions of seniors on a UnitedHealthcare Medicare Advantage plan could get a letter this fall that they do not want to ignore. The insurer is weighing whether to pull out of Medicare Advantage in dozens of counties for 2027, and if your county is on the list, your coverage would not simply continue. The good…
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Those $2,000 tariff “dividend” checks are still only a proposal, and any text saying yours is ready is a scam
If a text message just told you that your $2,000 tariff “dividend” check is approved and ready to claim, stop before you tap anything. As of August 2026, those checks are still only an idea that President Trump has floated, not a payment any agency is sending out. The messages telling you otherwise are exactly…
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The new work rule for food stamps now reaches adults 55 to 64, and more than a million could lose their benefits
If you are somewhere between 55 and 64 and food stamps help you reach the end of the month, a rule that never used to apply to you now does. As of this spring, adults in that age range have to show they are working, training, or volunteering to keep their benefits beyond a few…
