Social Security

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Look Out: Here Comes Trump's New Budget Plan

The AP says it relies on 'rosy' projections

(Newser) - Confronted with trillion-dollar-plus deficits for as far as the eye can see, President Trump is offering a budget plan that rehashes previously rejected spending cuts while leaving Social Security and Medicare benefits untouched. Trump’s fiscal 2021 budget plan, expected to be released Monday, isn’t likely to generate a...

Trump Suggests He's Open to Entitlement Cuts

'At some point' they will be on his plate, he says in CNBC interview

(Newser) - Entitlement programs such as Social Security and Medicare could potentially get cut under President Trump, or so he suggested at the very end of a CNBC interview from Davos on Wednesday. In what the Washington Post describes as a "new openness" to the idea—he pledged to protect entitlements...

Warren's Social Security Plan Calls for a Raise

She wants people to get $200 more a month, and she wants the rich to pay for it

(Newser) - Elizabeth Warren is out with her latest policy proposal, and she's calling for those on Social Security to receive an extra $200 a month. In a post at Medium detailing the proposal, Warren says the increased benefits would be paid for by raising taxes on the wealthy. The plan...

Social Security Recipients Get Largest Raise in Years

But it will amount to just about $39 a month

(Newser) - Tens of millions of Social Security recipients and other retirees will get a 2.8% boost in benefits next year as inflation edges higher, the AP reports. It's the biggest increase most retired baby boomers have gotten. Following a stretch of low inflation, the cost-of-living adjustment, or COLA, for...

Clue in Mail Bomb Sent to Obama: Cat Hair Under Label

Another clue: 'obliterated' eBay shipping label on package sent to Gov. Greg Abbott

(Newser) - A 46-year-old Texas woman faces a host of charges after she allegedly mailed explosives to then-President Barack Obama, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, and former Social Security Administration Commissioner Carolyn Colvin. Julia Poff of Sealy had been repeatedly denied Social Security benefits and was also upset with the handling of a...

Social Security Recipients Get Largest Raise in Years

Though it'll only amount to $25 a month

(Newser) - Millions of Social Security recipients and other retirees will get a 2% increase in benefits next year. It's the largest increase since 2012 but comes to only $25 a month for the average beneficiary. The Social Security Administration announced the cost-of-living adjustment (COLA) Friday. The COLA affects benefits for...

Social Security Recipients May Get Biggest Raise in Years

It's expected to only be about 2.2% (or $28 a month, on average), but still

(Newser) - Millions of Americans who rely on Social Security can expect to see their biggest pay increase in years in January, per projections released Thursday by the program's trustees, the AP reports. The increase is projected to be just 2.2%, or about $28 a month for the average recipient....

$600M Scam Lawyer Claims He's Fled US

Eric Conn claims he used a fake passport to flee the country

(Newser) - A fugitive Kentucky lawyer at the center of a nearly $600 million Social Security fraud case has fled the country using a fake passport and has gotten help from someone overseas with a job to help support himself, reports the AP . In an email exchange with The Lexington Herald-Leader over...

Wanted Lawyer Emailed Us Surrender Terms, Says Paper

Eric Conn, guilty in Social Security fraud, is on the lam

(Newser) - Someone claiming to be a fugitive Kentucky lawyer at the center of a nearly $600 million Social Security fraud case has contacted a newspaper to spell out proposed terms of his surrender. Disability lawyer Eric C. Conn, who disappeared a month before his sentencing, faces an outstanding FBI warrant for...

Tougher 'Able-Bodied' Work Rules Expected for Benefits

Trump budget calls for cuts in food stamps, Medicaid

(Newser) - President Trump unveils his first detailed budget plan on Tuesday, and word leaking out in advance suggests he wants big cuts for Medicaid and food stamps. The Washington Post reports that Trump's budget slashes Medicaid by $800 billion over 10 years, meaning he's on board with the House...

Man Willing to Lose Job Over 17-Minute Diversity Video

David Hall has refused the Social Security Administration's directive for months

(Newser) - David Hall would rather lose a job he's held for 14 years than watch a 17-minute video. The 42-year-old Social Security Administration employee is making headlines over his months-long refusal to watch a training video about lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender diversity as part of an initiative "in...

Homeless Woman, 80, Finally Gets $100K Owed to Her by US

Wander Witter tried to prove her case for years

(Newser) - For years Wanda Witter, an 80-year-old retired machinist wandered the streets of Washington, DC, with three suitcases crammed full of Social Security paperwork that she insisted proved the government owed her a lot of money. People called her crazy and a hoarder, especially because she slept in shelters or on...

Army Making Rare Change to Its Iconic Dog Tags

It's the first alteration to the tags in 40 years

(Newser) - For soldiers, a dog tag "individualizes the human being who wears it, despite his or her role as a small part of a huge and faceless organization," CNN quotes the Library of Congress as saying. But few citizens probably realize the danger dogs tags can put soldiers in....

If You Get Social Security, Bad News, Again

There's no benefit increase for 2016

(Newser) - The government says there will be no benefit increase next year for millions of Social Security recipients, disabled veterans, and federal retirees. It's just the third time in 40 years that payments will remain flat, with all three times occurring since 2010. And there's more bad news: The...

11M People Could Have a Social Security Problem Next Year

Unless Congress acts, disability benefits will be cut 19%

(Newser) - Our annual report on the state of Social Security and Medicare was issued yesterday, and from a 30,000-foot view, the AP sees Social Security's financial health as having grown no worse in the past year. In fact, the program's retirement trust fund is projected to be able...

New Obama Gun-Control Plan Surprises NRA

Policy could put 4.7M more Americans in background-check system

(Newser) - A new plan to issue background checks on millions of potential gun-buyers has caught the NRA off guard, the Los Angeles Times reports. Responding to an executive order from President Obama, the Social Security Administration is devising a policy that could add millions of its beneficiaries to the National Instant...

SCOTUS Ruling Is Financial Win for Gay Couples, Too

It all has to do with Social Security benefits

(Newser) - Not only does today's Supreme Court ruling mean gay couples nationwide can marry—it also means they can add as much as $250,000 or more to their lifetime Social Security benefits, experts tell USA Today . That's because homosexual married couples can now take advantage of the same...

We Paid Suspected Nazis $20M in Social Security
 We Paid Suspected Nazis $20M in Social Security 
NEW REPORT

We Paid Suspected Nazis $20M in Social Security

US made payments for decades to 133 linked to Third Reich

(Newser) - The United States Social Security Administration paid out $20.2 million to 133 suspected Nazis over the course of decades—a pattern that ended only in January with the implementation of the No Social Security for Nazis Act —according to a new inspector general's report obtained by the...

Raising Retirement Age Hurts the Working Class

But 'political elites' in white-collar jobs think nothing of it: Ezra Klein

(Newser) - When it comes to shoring up Social Security, "establishment Washington" thinks a key part of the solution is a no-brainer: raise the retirement age, writes Ezra Klein at Vox . After all, goes the argument, Americans are living longer, so it's only logical to push it back to age...

Social Security Thinks 6.5M Americans Are Age 112

Lack of death records leaves all those cards vulnerable to fraud

(Newser) - Americans are getting older, but not this old: Social Security records show that 6.5 million people in the US have reached the ripe old age of 112. Common sense suggests otherwise—as of last fall, there were only 42 people known to be that old in the entire world....

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