Every fall, one number quietly resets what more than 70 million Social Security and Supplemental Security Income checks will look like come January, and this year’s version now has a locked release date sitting one month out. The Social Security Administration is set to publish the 2027 cost-of-living adjustment on October 14, once the Bureau…

Supplemental Security Income recipients will see a deposit land twice in October 2026, then nothing arrive in November. The second October payment is not a bonus on top of the first — it is November’s benefit, issued four days early because November 1 falls on a Sunday. For a household that budgets SSI as a…

Nearly half of the Social Security overpayment notices reviewed by the agency’s watchdog did not meet policy requirements, according to a September 4 audit release. The SSA Office of the Inspector General found deficiencies in 46 percent of the notices it reviewed. That finding does not cancel an overpayment or establish that every notice is…

The Social Security Administration’s inspector general says more than 1.1 million Supplemental Security Income underpayments, totaling about $291 million, were not paid to eligible recipients or survivors. The finding comes from a September 3 audit release, not from a new SSI payment program. It identifies an outstanding administrative problem and says SSA agreed to corrective…

Social Security employees incorrectly processed an estimated 7,000-plus requests from beneficiaries asking the agency to explain overpayment debts, a new inspector-general audit found. Some requests remained unresolved for more than 900 days, while missing documentation and deficient explanations made it harder to understand or challenge a debt. The estimate comes from a reviewed sample The…

A Maryland man received more than $270,000 in Social Security disability and auxiliary benefits while concealing two cleaning businesses, work and income from the agency, federal prosecutors say. A judge has sentenced Andrew Langford to eight months in prison and three years of supervised release for wire fraud. The benefits ran from 2014 through 2021…

A debt notice from Social Security can change a household budget immediately, yet federal auditors found basic information missing or wrong in nearly half the notices they sampled. The agency’s inspector general reported that 46 percent failed one or more Social Security policy requirements. Problems ranged from inaccurate amounts to omitted appeal language and unclear…

An unpaid federal benefit is not always the result of a denied application. Social Security’s inspector general estimates that more than 1.1 million Supplemental Security Income underpayments, totaling about $291 million, were sitting in pending records rather than reaching eligible recipients or survivors. The audit found both preventable processing delays and cases that required additional…

A Massachusetts woman was sentenced this month for stealing more than $100,000 in Social Security benefits meant for someone who had already died. Jennifer Valley, 51, of Barre, had been appointed the beneficiary’s representative payee — the person trusted to manage someone else’s Social Security check and account for how it was spent. Instead of…

A federal disability file can turn a complicated young life into a diagnosis, a school record, and a handful of checked boxes. Starting October 1, every Social Security adjudicator will use a new rulebook to make that call for young adults, replacing guidance that has been on the books since 2011. For families whose household…