The Treasury Department says two new payment checks are now fully operational. One confirms who owns the bank account a federal payment is headed to, and the other confirms that a Taxpayer Identification Number is present and in the right format. Treasury reports that both became fully operational on September 30, 2026, and that payments…

The Treasury Department’s Bureau of the Fiscal Service says federal benefit payments must now be paid electronically, either by direct deposit to an account at the recipient’s financial institution or by electronic payment to a Treasury-sponsored account, unless the recipient holds a waiver under 31 CFR Part 208. Paper checks have stopped for most federal…

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.…

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…

Social Security says an SSI recipient who shares a home and pays a full share of the household bills sees no cut in the monthly check. The rule sits in the agency’s provisions on in-kind support and maintenance, the label for housing help that someone else provides. When the share falls short, the payment can…

Supplemental Security Income pays nothing for a month in which a person’s countable resources are above the limit when the month begins. Social Security’s rules put the test on the first day, so a balance that drops later in the month does not bring that month’s check back. The limit is $2,000 for an individual…

A short hospital or rehab stay does not have to cut an SSI check to almost nothing. Social Security says a person who will be in a medical institution for 90 days or less may be able to receive the regular SSI benefit. Without that exception, a long stay paid mostly by Medicaid drops the…

Medicaid is moving adults in the expansion group from yearly renewals to renewals every six months. The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services says the change applies beginning with renewals scheduled on or after January 1, 2027. A second change in the same law limits how far back coverage can reach for a new application…

A relative who hands over groceries and a relative who hands over a grocery gift card are treated differently by Supplemental Security Income. Social Security says food that someone else provides no longer reduces an SSI check, but cash or a gift card given to pay for food is still counted as income. The food…

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services has named nine groups of people who are excluded from the new Medicaid work requirement. They include veterans with a total disability rating, people who are pregnant or eligible for postpartum coverage, and members of households receiving SNAP, the food stamp program, who are not exempt from SNAP’s…