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Your Part D drug plan would never tell you this, but the alarming fact is that there is no limit to what you might spend out-of-pocket for your prescriptions drugs in any given year. While this may not seem like much of a worry if you just take a few common generics, it becomes a far greater concern should you ever need high priced drugs - or have a medication bill of more than 0 per month. That could happen to any of us at any time..Rather than get into all the details of how this works, we will simplify it this way. The Democrats now have the majority in the Senate because Vice President Harris can break tie votes, giving a majority vote of 51 to the Democrats..Take The TSCL Senior Survey!.Adding a mortgage once you've retired adds a big monthly expense and it's a decision that you may want to discuss with an independent financial advisor..However, those projections were made prior to the severe economic downturn caused by the pandemic. Those funds will be affected both by the amount each program spends this year, and by the lower-than-projected revenue because of the depression-level unemployment. Those factors will not be determined until the end of this year. And until a vaccine or an effective treatment is found, the improvement in the economic outlook remains very uncertain..Known as "auxiliary beneficiaries," they are children, widows, spouses, and parents, entitled to benefits on the record of another individual. The Social Security Act requires that individuals first entitled to benefits as of June 1, 1989 or later, must have applied for a Social Security number to receive benefits. But a recent audit by the Social Security Office of Inspector General found that, as of June 2014, there are 11,179 auxiliary beneficiaries without SSNs receiving benefits because of a loophole - they became entitled to benefits prior to June 1, 1989 and therefore are not required to have an SSN on the Social Security Administration's Master Benefit Record or to have applied for one to receive benefits..Possibly. A great deal will depend on how much of your 401 and IRA distributions are taxable. A quick way to check is to take one-half of your total Social Security benefits, add to that all taxable pensions, wages, interest, dividends and other taxable income. Then add any tax-exempt interest income. This is called your "provisional" income..Improving the disability program's integrity by prohibiting the use of medical evidence from health providers who have been convicted of a felony, when deciding whether an applicant qualifies for benefits. This would make it more difficult for criminals to game the system..A growing number of Social Security recipients are affected by the tax, because the income thresholds are fixed, rather than adjusted annually, like income brackets. Because of this, the number of Social Security recipients who are hit by the tax has increased substantially over the years as incomes increased.