On Wednesday, the Senate Special Committee on Aging convened to hold a hearing titled "Stopping Senior Scams." At the hearing, members of the committee released this year's Fraud Book, which details the ten most common scams reported to the committee's fraud hotline. In 2017, the hotline received calls from more than 1,400 seniors who were the victims of robocalls, lottery scams, grandparent scams, and romance scams, among many others..A senior with the average Social Security benefit in 2000 received 6 per month, a figure that rose to ,129.80 by 201However, that senior would require a Social Security benefit of ,477.00 per month in 2013 just to maintain his or her 2000 buying power..The data certainly suggests this is the case. The years in which inflation as measured by the Consumer Price Index for Workers has been the highest, the difference in the chained CPI was the greatest. The average difference between the CPI-W and the chained CPI is 0.3 tenths of a percentage point. But in 2005 when Hurricane Katrina sent gas prices through the roof, the CPI-W paid a COLA of 4.1% the following year. The chained CPI would only have paid 3.4% - a difference of 0.7 tenths of a percentage point. In 2008 the CPI-W paid a COLA of 5.8% the following year. The chained CPI would have only paid 5.2%, a difference of 0.6 tenths of a percentage point..In general, distributions from a traditional IRA are taxable in the year you receive them, although there are some exceptions. Thus you would need to figure the full amount of your distribution in figuring your provisional income..Shopping for a new Medicare Plan? Watch out For This Overlooked Practice..On Monday, with a vote mostly along party lines of 55-43, lawmakers in the Senate confirmed the nomination of Seema Verma, who now serves as the administrator of the trillion agency that has jurisdiction over Medicare and Medicaid. Previously, Verma worked as a health care consultant, and she played a leading role in redesigning Indiana's Medicaid program under then-Governor Mike Pence..Wilson Disease can cause organ or cognitive failure. Because no equivalent for Syprine exists, Heyman was forced to try an alternative treatment, Galzin, which costs her about 0 per year. Heyman said the change was made only under duress, because it does not remove the fatal build - up of copper in her system - just absorbs it - and the long - term consequences of the switch are still unknown..During the August break an old and ugly threat to Social Security and Medicare surfaced once again. The Congressional Budget Office released its forecast of future federal government deficits. It said that deficits are expected to climb to over trillion in fiscal year2020, which begins this October And they will keep going up in the years after that..This week, members of the bicameral budget conference seemed to hit an impasse, and The Senior Citizens League announced its support for the Social Security and Medicare Lock-Box Act. In addition, two key bills gained cosponsors this week.
