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This week, one House subcommittee met to discuss the Social Security benefits of public servants like teachers, police officers, and firefighters. In addition, The Senior Citizens League announced its support for one new bill..Tightening eligibility requirements, including requiring disability applicants to have worked six of the past ten years, and modestly increasing the age at which it becomes easier to qualify for benefits from forty-five to fifty..Alexandria, VA majority of Social Security recipients would have to raid retirement savings or use a line of credit to meet even relatively modest financial emergencies, according to a new poll by The Senior Citizens League. When retirees were asked how they would raise ,000, 49 percent of respondents said they would take money from savings and another 30 percent said they would use a line of credit or borrow..This week, Members of Congress continued to focus on a series of fiscal 2015 appropriations bills including one that would provide funding for the Social Security Administration and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. In addition, The Senior Citizens League announced its support for a new piece of legislation, and two key bills gained cosponsors..This late into 2018, one way to prevent a penalty is to pay an estimated, or additional payment that brings your estimated tax payments to least 100 percent of your prior year tax liability, or 110 percent of the prior year liability, if you believe you will have higher income in 201If you think you may have underpaid during the year, there's still time to make an estimated payment by January 15th, 2019 to stop penalties from accruing. To prevent the same problem next year, consider adjusting withholding taxes from pension or annuities, as well as withdrawals from retirement accounts..For example, if the price of gasoline soars do people spend more on gas for their autos, or make fewer trips? Because Social Security recipients are living on fixed income, they don't always have the leeway to spend more, meaning larger numbers of seniors might drive less. Younger consumers on a budget and people who are out of work, may be in the same boat. And if a lot of consumers are in the same fix, and wind up driving less, this measure is likely to show that inflation didn't increase much, even though the price of gas at the pump is stratospheric. That would mean your COLA wouldn't grow either, even though cost inflation may be soaring..The Social Security Trustees now say that benefit costs are exceeding the cash revenues coming in. Do you think changes are needed, and if so, what?.The goal is to prevent fraud and combat identity theft by removing the Social Security numbers from cards and using a unique, randomly assigned number instead. The new cards, which contain a combination of numbers and uppercase letters, will be automatically mailed to all Medicare beneficiaries. There is nothing people need to do to obtain the cards..Shuffling doctors can heighten the risk of mishaps. A study of at least 2,200 older adults published in 2016 found that nearly 4 in 10 were taking at least five medications at the same time. Fifteen percent of them were at risk of drug-to-drug interaction.