Category: Benefits & Retirement
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A widow or widower can step up to 100% of a late spouse’s Social Security benefit
When a spouse dies, the surviving partner’s Social Security often changes in a way most couples never plan for. A widow or widower can move up to the full benefit the late spouse was receiving, replacing their own smaller check with the larger one. For a household that spent years living on two Social Security…
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A divorced spouse married at least 10 years can claim up to half an ex’s Social Security
A long marriage that ended in divorce can still count toward retirement income. Social Security lets a divorced person collect a benefit built on an ex-spouse’s earnings record, and for many people who spent years out of the paid workforce or earned far less than a former husband or wife, that check can be larger…
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Ozempic and Wegovy are set to cost about $350 cash, and $50 a month for many on Medicare
The blockbuster weight-loss drugs that many households could not afford are getting markedly cheaper under a pricing arrangement between the federal government and the two companies that make them. Starting-dose versions of drugs like Wegovy, Zepbound, and the Ozempic class are being sold for about $350 a month in cash, and Medicare enrollees are looking…
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New Medicaid work rules start in 2027, and states like Nebraska are already dropping people who fall short
A nationwide Medicaid work requirement is coming, and a few states are not waiting for the deadline. Federal regulators have set January 1, 2027, as the date by which states must require many adults on Medicaid to log work hours to keep their coverage. Nebraska has already begun, and its early rollout offers a preview…
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Taking six months of Social Security back pay as a lump sum permanently shrinks your monthly check
There is a feature of Social Security that sounds like a windfall and quietly acts like a trade. A retiree who claims after full retirement age can ask for up to six months of back benefits paid at once, as a lump sum. The catch is that Social Security does not treat that money as…
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SNAP rolls have fallen by roughly 5 million people in a year as new work rules bite
The nation’s largest anti-hunger program has shrunk fast. In roughly a year, the number of people receiving SNAP food benefits fell by about 5 million, a drop that came faster than federal officials had projected. Behind the decline is a new set of work rules that took effect after last year’s big tax-and-spending law, and…
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A new Senate bill would stop the government from garnishing Social Security checks over old student loans
Some retirees are opening their Social Security statements this year to find a chunk missing, taken to pay down a federal student loan that went into default decades ago. That is legal under current rules, and it restarted after a long pandemic pause. Now a group of senators wants to end the practice outright with…
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About 2.9 million seniors could be forced to switch as 25 hospital systems drop Medicare Advantage this year
For most older Americans, the hospital and doctors they trust are only “in network” because of the specific Medicare plan in their wallet. That link is fraying. A running industry tally now counts 25 health systems that have dropped, ended, or narrowed their Medicare Advantage contracts so far in 2026, and the number keeps climbing…
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Full retirement age is now 67 for everyone born in 1960 or later, and claiming at 62 cuts the check about 30 percent
For everyone born in 1960 or later, full retirement age for Social Security is now 67 — and claiming at the earliest possible age of 62 permanently cuts the monthly benefit by about 30 percent. That reduction is not temporary and does not reverse when you get older; it locks in for life. The decision…
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More than 4 million people have already lost food aid as SNAP’s new work rules take hold
More than 4 million people have already dropped off SNAP, the country’s largest food-assistance program, as tougher work rules from the 2025 federal law take hold. Average monthly enrollment has fallen by roughly 5 million from a year earlier, and analysts expect the number to keep climbing as states finish rolling out the requirements. Behind…
