Tag: Social Security

June 28, 2024

House GOP appropriators have proposed a $450 million cut to the Social Security Administration’s administrative budget, in a move that Democrats warn will worsen the agency’s customer service crisis. The cuts are tucked into the fiscal 2025 Labor, Health and […]

November 20, 2023

A new financial report released by the Social Security Administration last week shows that the scope of the agency’s overpayment problem has continued to grow. As of Oct. 1, the SSA had an uncollected balance of $23 billion in overpayments […]

November 10, 2023

In an online overview published on Nov. 9, the government of Maine confirmed that a group of cybercriminals exploiting the now-infamous vulnerability in the MOVEit file-transfer tool to allow them access to files belonging to the State of Maine between […]

October 12, 2023

Millions of Social Security recipients will get a 3.2% increase in their benefits in 2024, far less than this year’s historic boost and reflecting moderating consumer prices. The cost-of-living adjustment, or COLA, means the average recipient will receive more than […]

October 2, 2023

Several members of Congress are calling on the Social Security Administration to answer for issuing billions of dollars of payments it says beneficiaries weren’t entitled to receive — and then demanding the money back. Many of the recipients are elderly, […]

July 13, 2023

Retirement planning involves making some very important decisions regarding your federal pension benefit, Thrift Savings Plan investments and Social Security. This week, I’d like to focus on the last of these, because it includes a variety of benefits, each with […]

June 22, 2023

Social Security benefits have been a key element of federal employees’ overall retirement package since the creation of the Federal Employees Retirement System in 1986. Along with the basic federal retirement benefit and employees’ own savings and investments in the […]

April 3, 2023

Social Security will no longer be able to pay full benefits in 2033, a year earlier than previously expected, according to a report released Friday. The updated projections, in the annual trustee report, mean that without action to stabilize the […]

January 18, 2023

It’s 2023—indeed a couple weeks into the new year—and it’s anything but clear where Congress will be headed on the future of Social Security. Actually, it’s anything but clear where Congress is headed at all. After over a decade of […]

October 27, 2022

What are you going to do after you retire? For some federal employees, the answer is, “I’m going to work!” If you’re fortunate to be eligible to retire from federal service in your 50s, you might be able to continue […]

October 13, 2022

Tens of millions of older Americans are getting the biggest raise of their lifetimes. The U.S. government announced Thursday that Social Security beneficiaries will see an 8.7% increase in monthly payments this upcoming year, the largest increase in four decades. […]

October 6, 2022

Agroup of 16 Senate Democrats last week urged President Biden to nominate a permanent commissioner of the Social Security Administration, attributing persistent workforce issues at the agency in part to the lack of Senate-confirmed leadership. The Social Security Administration has […]

October 5, 2021

U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said Tuesday that Oct. 18 remains the date she is likely to run out of resources to stave off an unprecedented default on the nation’s debt without congressional action to raise the debt limit. She […]

September 16, 2021

Sixty-eight percent of Americans agree that investments in federal IT are usually worth it, according to a new national survey by MeriTalk and the Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research. The survey probes how the government has fared in […]

April 7, 2021

The Treasury Department said Wednesday it has issued more than 156 million payments as part of President Joe Biden’s coronavirus relief plan, including 25 million payments that were primarily to Social Security beneficiaries who hadn’t filed 2019 or 2020 tax […]

March 4, 2021

You’ve probably received a phone call claiming your Social Security number has been compromised. For people who fall for such scams, the experience can add up to big financial losses. One elderly woman in Massachusetts lost more than $900,000 to […]

September 14, 2020

It’s been nearly two weeks since President Donald Trump’s payroll tax deferral took effect – and large employers so far seem to have little appetite for the holiday. Starting on Sept. 1, employers could defer collection of the 6.2% tax […]

August 31, 2020

Workers who participate in President Donald Trump’s payroll tax deferral will see a temporary increase in their take-home pay, but they’ll likely see smaller paychecks in early 2021. Sept. 1 marks the first day of Trump’s payroll tax deferral for […]

August 11, 2020

The Association of Administrative Law Judges accused the Social Security Administration of breaking federal labor law when it implemented a partial union contract on Monday. Union representatives said that the agency’s move flies in the face of the ground rules […]

May 11, 2020

President Donald Trump is reportedly considering another way to get more money to struggling Americans by letting them take an advance on their Social Security benefits. Many Americans are eager for more financial help from the effects of the coronavirus […]