Category: Social Security
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Social Security lets a widow or widower start survivor benefits as early as 60, or at 50 if they are disabled
Social Security survivor benefits can start well before retirement age for a widow or widower. The earliest start is age 60, or as early as age 50 for a surviving spouse who has a disability. The age is a minimum, and other conditions about the marriage also have to be met. The Social Security Administration’s…
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Social Security lets an unmarried divorced spouse 62 or older, married at least 10 years, get up to half of an ex’s full benefit without cutting the ex’s check
A divorced person can collect Social Security on a former spouse’s record, and the former spouse’s own check does not shrink when that happens. The rule applies to someone who is 62 or older, has not remarried and was married to the ex for at least 10 years. The most the divorced spouse can receive…
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Social Security cannot pay benefits for the month a beneficiary dies, so the payment that arrives the following month must be returned
When a Social Security recipient dies, the payment for that month cannot be paid, and the deposit that shows up the next month has to go back. Social Security checks arrive a month behind, so the money landing in the account after a death is often the payment for the month the person died. Families…
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Social Security’s full retirement age is 67 for workers born in 1960 or later, up from 66 and 10 months for those born in 1959
Workers born in 1960 or later cannot collect a full Social Security retirement check until they turn 67, according to the Social Security Administration. For workers born in 1959, that full retirement age is 66 and 10 months, the last step in a schedule that has been creeping upward for years. The figures come from…
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Social Security pays a widow or widower up to 100% of the late spouse’s benefit when the survivor waits until full retirement age to claim survivor benefits
Social Security pays a widow or widower up to 100% of a late spouse’s benefit, but only when the survivor holds off until full retirement age for survivor benefits. Claiming earlier means a smaller monthly check. For many households that timing is one of the biggest money decisions that follows a death. The Social Security…
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Social Security beneficiaries paid by birth date get their last checks before the 3.6% raise Dec. 9, 16 and 23, then the first raised checks Jan. 13, 20 and 27
Social Security beneficiaries who are paid on a Wednesday according to their birth date will get their last checks before the 3.6% cost-of-living raise on Dec. 9, 16 and 23. The first raised checks arrive a few weeks later, on Jan. 13, 20 and 27. The Social Security Administration announced the 3.6% increase for 2027…
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Social Security withholds half of a beneficiary’s monthly check by default to recover overpayments in notices issued since April 25, 2025, unless a lower rate is negotiated
Social Security now holds back half of a person’s monthly benefit by default to collect an overpayment, up from 10 percent. The higher rate covers overpayment notices sent on or after April 25, 2025, and a lower rate happens only when one is separately negotiated. The Social Security Administration (SSA) put the change in a…
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Social Security usually pays benefits the month after they are due, so November deposits cover October’s benefit, while SSI pays in the month it covers
Social Security pays each month’s benefit in the month after it is due, which means the deposit that lands in November is the benefit for October. Supplemental Security Income, known as SSI, is the separate program for people with limited income and resources, and it runs on a different clock. SSI pays in the month…
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Social Security wrongly denied about 600 disabled-child claims, its watchdog estimates
Social Security’s own watchdog says employees wrongly turned down an estimated 600 disabled-child claims by not following the agency’s policies. All of those claims were approved later, but only after a denial that should not have happened. The Social Security Administration’s Office of the Inspector General reviewed child’s insurance benefit claims that were first denied…
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Older SSI cases that include an essential person get $516 a month for that person starting with the December 31 payment
Supplemental Security Income cases that include an essential person will see that person’s amount rise to $516 a month for 2027. Social Security’s actuaries list the figure in their 2027 SSI amounts table, up from $5,978.41 a year in 2026 to $6,193.63 a year before rounding. The higher SSI payments begin on December 31, 2026,…