Social Security Finalizes Change to SSI Benefits

Big change as of October 1, 2024!  The Social Security Administration is moving forward with a major change to the way it calculates monthly Supplemental Security Income (SSI) benefits for those with disabilities. The agency said that starting this fall it will no longer factor food when determining what’s known as “in-kind support and maintenance.” Under current rules, SSI benefits can be reduced — in many cases by about a third — if someone else routinely provides meals or groceries to a beneficiary. Now, that’s set to change. In a final rule published late last month, the Social Security Administration said it will stop considering food expenses in calculations of in-kind support and maintenance as of September 30, 2024. The agency will continue to factor in shelter expenses — meaning that SSI benefits can be docked if a beneficiary does not contribute to rent, mortgage, or utility costs for their residence.

Source:  Disability Scoop

Social Security changes every year, and just about every working or retired American will feel the impact. That will be the case in 2024, with several changes slated for the new year. Most of the changes will give people a financial lift, but a couple will have the opposite effect. The biggest change, announced earlier this month, is a cost-of-living increase (COLA) that will boost Social Security payments beginning in January 2024. Because of this year’s declining inflation rate, the 2024 COLA will be much less than the 8.7 percent increase Social Security recipients have enjoyed in 2023. Other changes include an increase in the amount of income subject to payroll tax ($168,600 in 2024); an increase in the maximum full retirement age benefit ($3,627 in 2024); and more. 

SOURCE: NASDAQ 

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) has announced a list of 41 drugs available through Medicare Part B that will have a lowered Part B coinsurance rate from April 1 – June 30, 2024, if the drug company raises prices faster than the rate of inflation. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) estimates that 763,700 people with Medicare use one or more of these drugs annually. This lowered coinsurance rate is due to a provision of the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), which President Biden signed into law in 2022. The IRA includes an extensive expansion of Medicare prescription drug benefits, including this check on the annual rise in costs of drugs by requiring drug companies to pay rebates if prices rise faster than inflation. The IRA also includes provisions to expand access to the full Part D low-income subsidy (“Extra Help”) up to 150 percent FPL (federal poverty level); HHS estimates that 300,000 people with low and modest incomes are now benefiting from this expansion. Another provision caps beneficiary out-of-pocket Part D drug costs at $2,000 per year starting in 2025. Starting this year some people enrolled in Medicare Part D who have high drug costs have a cap of about $3,500. The IRA also allows Medicare to negotiate with drug manufacturers for the price of some Part D and Part B drugs, with lower prices taking effect in 2026.

Source:  Center for Medicare Advocacy

One of Mexico’s most violent criminal groups, Jalisco New Generation, runs call centers that offer to buy retirees’ vacation properties. Then, it empties its victims’ bank accounts. Cartel employees posing as sales representatives call up timeshare owners, offering to buy their investments back for generous sums. They then demand upfront fees for anything from listing advertisements to paying government fines. The representatives persuade their victims to wire large amounts of money to Mexico — sometimes as much as hundreds of thousands of dollars — and then they disappear. The scheme has netted the cartel, Jalisco New Generation, hundreds of millions of dollars over the past decade, according to U.S. officials who were not authorized to speak publicly, via dozens of call centers in Mexico that relentlessly target American and Canadian timeshare owners. They even bribe employees at Mexican resorts to leak guest information, the U.S. officials say. The scam represents the latest evolution of the Jalisco New Generation, which is entrenched in both illegal and legal sectors of the economy. The cartel typically preys on older, retired people who want to leave as much money as they can to their family by selling off assets. Several victims interviewed by The New York Times said the money they had lost to scammers exceeded the value of their initial investment in timeshares in Jamaica, California, and Mexico.

SOURCE: NEW YORK TIMES