Category: Government Programs
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The Veterans’ Compensation COLA Act has sat in a Senate committee since May 11
The Senate has done one thing with the veterans’ cost-of-living bill since it arrived: send it to a committee. Sen. Jerry Moran, a Kansas Republican, introduced the Veterans’ Compensation Cost-of-Living Adjustment Act of 2026, S. 4487, on May 11, and it was read twice and referred to the Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committee. No hearing, markup…
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Food stamp households assigned to change reporting must report a change in income at the $150 threshold, under the USDA figures that took effect this month
A food stamp household that is assigned to change reporting has one dollar line to watch: $150. USDA lists that figure in its fiscal year 2027 SNAP cost-of-living tables, the set of figures that took effect on October 1. The tables run through September 30, 2027. The table is headed “Threshold for Required Reporting of…
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A veteran with the top disability rating and no dependents would go from $3,939 to $4,080 a month on December 1 if Congress passes the compensation COLA bill
A veteran rated 100 percent disabled, with no spouse, children or dependent parents, gets $3,938.58 a month from VA today. That rate took effect December 1, 2025. If Congress passes the Veterans’ Compensation Cost-of-Living Adjustment Act of 2026, the same veteran would go from $3,939 to $4,080 a month on December 1, 2026. The $4,080…
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Social Security can cut an SSI check by up to a third when the recipient lives in someone else’s household, though food stopped counting toward it in 2024
Moving in with a relative can shrink an SSI check by as much as a third, and since September 30, 2024 the groceries someone else buys no longer count against it. Social Security says a payment may be reduced by up to one-third of the federal benefit rate when a recipient lives in another person’s…
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Social Security’s SSI program paid 7.24 million people an average of $711 a month in January 2026 and was on track to complete at least 2.6 million eligibility reviews in fiscal 2026
Social Security’s Supplemental Security Income program paid 7.24 million people an average of $711 a month in January 2026, according to the agency’s latest SSI annual report. The same report says Social Security was on track to complete at least 2.6 million eligibility reviews, which the agency calls redeterminations, in fiscal year 2026. SSI is…
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Federal retirees asking OPM to change their contact details would have to verify their identity on a new form under a proposal open for comment until December 18
The Office of Personnel Management wants retirees who ask to change the contact details on their federal annuity to prove who they are on a brand-new form. The agency published its proposal in the Federal Register on October 19, 2026, and is taking public comments until December 18, 2026. Nothing is required yet, because the…
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Medicaid adults flagged under the new work rule get 30 calendar days to show hours, income or an exemption before losing coverage, under CMS’s interim final rule
A Medicaid adult whose state cannot confirm compliance with the new work rule gets a notice and 30 calendar days to respond before coverage can be denied or ended. The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services set that in its interim final rule, CMS-2454-IFC, which the Federal Register published on June 3, 2026 at 91…
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New Mexico Medicaid applicants 65 and older or disabled will get only two months of past bills covered starting in January, and most adults 19 to 64 just one
New Mexico Medicaid will cover only two months of bills from before the application month for applicants 65 and older or with a disability, starting in January 2027. Most adults 19 to 64 will get just one month. The New Mexico Health Care Authority posts the change on its Medicaid changes page, which was last…
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SSI recipients who sign Social Security’s Equifax wage-sharing consent stop reporting monthly pay from participating employers, but revoking it ends their penalty protection
People on Supplemental Security Income who work can sign one form and hand the monthly pay reporting to a credit bureau. Social Security’s page on the Payroll Information Exchange, known as PIE, says the agency currently uses Equifax to collect wage and employment data from employers that take part. The signature is voluntary, and the…
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SNAP’s work time limit now exempts American Indians but no longer exempts homeless adults, veterans or former foster youth, under USDA’s memo on the 2025 law
Homeless adults, veterans and young people who aged out of foster care no longer have an automatic exemption from SNAP’s work time limit, while American Indians now do. That is the line the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food and Nutrition Service draws in its Oct. 3, 2025 implementation memo on the 2025 federal budget law,…