A divorce can throw a monkey wrench into retirement plans, especially for women whose earning records may have fewer work years and at lower earnings than their former spouses. Understanding your options can help you maximize your Social Security benefit and live a more secure retirement. Here are the four main eligibility rules to qualify for a benefit based on the work record of an ex-spouse:.These actions are what families do, but they are not without long term costs to retirement security. Some of you have reported going into debt, most often due to high medical costs. In fact, a Gallup poll in July of 2020 found that 15% of the adults contacted reported at least one person in their household had medical debt that will not be repaid either in full or in part within the next 12 months..The suppressed growth in Social Security benefits not only creates ongoing benefit adequacy issues for retirees, but also Medicare budget problems when the COLA is not sufficient to cover rising Part B premiums for large numbers of beneficiaries. When the dollar amount of the annual Medicare Part B premium increase is greater than the dollar amount of an individual's annual cost of living adjustment, the Social Security benefits of about 70 percent of Medicare beneficiaries are protected by the hold-harmless provision in the Social Security Act. The Medicare Part B premium of those individuals is reduced to prevent their net Social Security benefits from being lower than the year before..The budget blueprint now moves to the Senate, where leaders are expected to take it up as early as Monday. It will likely pass along party lines in that chamber too, with no anticipated support from Senate Democrats..Older Americans report that their household budgets jumped substantially last year despite the lack of growth in their Social Security benefits, according to a new survey by The Senior Citizens League. "The gap between benefit growth and retiree costs was particularly pronounced due to rising prices of the most essential items in retirees' budgets, - medical and food costs," says TSCL's Social Security and Medicare policy analyst, Mary Johnson. TSCL today sent a letter to Congressional leaders calling upon them to enact legislation that would provide a modest boost to Social Security benefits..Then in early 2018 when the 2017 payroll returns are filed by your employer, Social Security will verify how much you actually earned in 2017, and may repay any excess benefits that were withheld or let you know if they did not withhold enough. But beware! TSCL has learned of cases where these recalculations have been wrong and very time consuming to get corrected..The U.S. is not the only country with that experience. Canada and Great Britain have had the same experience..Never allow anyone into your home to check electrical wiring, natural gas pipes or appliances unless you have scheduled an appointment or have reported a utility problem. Also, ask utility employees for proper identification..This is hard. Dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic and the drastic changes it has brought to all our lives is hard. But for seniors, the group most vulnerable to severe, and even fatal cases of the disease, it is very hard.
