Category: Benefits & Retirement
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Social Security adds two-thirds of 1% to a retirement check for each month a worker waits past full retirement age
Social Security adds two-thirds of 1 percent to a worker’s retirement check for each month the worker waits past full retirement age. For anyone born in 1943 or later, that adds up to 8 percent for every full year of delay, the agency’s delayed retirement credits page says. The extra amount keeps building until 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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Social Security beneficiaries still paid by paper check must switch to electronic payments and can sign up online, at a bank or through Treasury’s 1-800-333-1795 line
Social Security beneficiaries who still get a paper check must switch to an electronic payment, and the agency’s direct deposit page lists the ways to do it. They can sign up online through a personal my Social Security account, in person at a bank or other financial institution, or by phone through Treasury’s Electronic Payment…
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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,…
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Iowa Health and Wellness Plan members face Medicaid work rules starting December 1, a month before the federal date, and anyone applying from then on must meet them
Iowa will start holding certain Iowa Health and Wellness Plan members to monthly work and activity requirements on Dec. 1, 2026, a month before the Jan. 1, 2027 deadline set for states in the federal rule. Anyone who applies for the plan on or after Dec. 1 must meet the requirements to be eligible, according…
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Social Security’s 2027 table shows a top earner who retired at 67 in January 2026 collecting $4,359 a month, and one who retired at 70 that month $5,368
Social Security’s benefit table for 2027 shows a top earner who retired at 67 in January 2026 collecting $4,359 a month, and one who retired at 70 that same month collecting $5,368. The $1,009 monthly difference comes to $12,108 a year. Both amounts are for 2027, after the cost-of-living increase, and come from the table…
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Social Security no longer asks people repaying an overpayment to mail a check, and points them to Pay.gov, bank bill pay or its debt line instead
Social Security has stopped asking people who owe it money to put a check in the mail. In a July 14, 2026 letter to advocacy groups, the agency said it “will no longer ask individuals to mail checks or credit card forms to repay their debts.” People repaying an overpayment are pointed to three electronic…
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Four new Medicare Advantage insurers start selling 2027 plans, including the Muscogee (Creek) Nation in 11 Oklahoma counties and St. Luke’s in seven Idaho counties
Four organizations are entering the Medicare Advantage market for 2027, and one is a tribal nation and two are health systems rather than long-established insurers. The Muscogee (Creek) Nation is offering a plan in 11 Oklahoma counties, and St. Luke’s Health System of Boise is offering one in seven Idaho counties. Open enrollment for 2027…