social-security
Every record this desk has filed under social-security, newest first, each with the number of sources it can still show you.
SSA notice sets 2027 SSI maximums and earnings thresholds alongside the 3.6 percent benefit adjustment
A Social Security Administration notice scheduled for the October 26 Federal Register sets out maximum federal SSI payments of $1,029 a month for an eligible individual and $1,544 for an eligible couple in 2027. It also details retirement earnings-test amounts, disability work thresholds and the $192,300 Social Security taxable earnings base. These are program parameters, not a prediction of any person's net payment.
Also filed undersupplemental-security-incomedisability-benefitsretirementfederal-register
Fiscal 2027 starts Thursday: the SNAP maximum for a family of four rises to $1,023 in the 48 states and D.C. but falls to $1,655 in Hawaii, most immigration court filing fees rise for filings from October 1, domestic package postage rises 6.0 percent on average from October 4, and the 2027 Social Security raise is not an October 1 change at all.
Fiscal year 2027 begins Thursday, October 1, and a set of federal numbers resets with it. Under the Agriculture Department's August 21 memo to states, SNAP's maximum monthly benefit for a family of four becomes $1,023 in the 48 states and D.C., up from this year's $994, and also rises in Alaska, Guam and the Virgin Islands, but falls in Hawaii, to $1,655 from $1,689. The memo gives no reason. The separate fee Congress added to a green card application filed in immigration court rises from $1,540 to $1,590 for filings on or after October 1, and the annual asylum fee from $102 to $105. Postal Service prices for Priority Mail, Priority Mail Express, Ground Advantage and Parcel Select rise 6.0 percent on average from October 4 until January 17, 2027. The FBI's fee for a fingerprint check for a job or license rises from $12 to $15. Medicare Advantage plans may start marketing 2027 coverage October 1. Not out yet: the 2027 Social Security raise, which waits on price data due October 14, and, on the CMS pages read September 28, the 2027 plan premiums CMS said it would release in September.
Also filed undersnapimmigration-courtpostal-servicemedicarefiscal-2027federal-register
When a database decides who is a citizen, its mistakes become the voter's paperwork. Check your record before it is checked against you.
On September 25 the Supreme Court stayed the order that had set aside the government's modified SAVE program, so state and local election offices may again run registered voters' names, birth dates and Social Security numbers against Social Security records, and must ask anyone the system cannot confirm to prove citizenship. The Court's own reason the challengers could sue is a naturalized citizen in Louisiana whose Social Security record still does not show it. The majority and the dissent split sharply on the law and on whose harm counts. Neither disputed the mechanism: a stale field in a file becomes a letter to a person. The voter roll is a database now, and the lesson reaches past elections. When eligibility is decided by matching you against a record you never see, that record's error is your burden, and the cheapest defense is to check and correct it before anyone runs the match. Here is what the 90-day federal rule does and does not stop, how Social Security says to update a citizenship record, and where to confirm your registration before November 3.
Also filed undervotingsupreme-courtcitizenshiprecordsmethod
The Supreme Court let the Homeland Security Department's SAVE program go back to checking registered voters' citizenship against Social Security records by pausing a June 22 ruling that had set the modified program aside; the majority said the 90-day federal moratorium on systematic removals limits the stay's potential impact before November 3 but does not bar one-by-one inquiries, and three justices dissented.
On September 25 the Supreme Court granted the Department of Homeland Security's application in No. 26A308 and stayed a June 22 district court order that had set aside the modified SAVE program. That version checks voters' names, dates of birth and full or partial Social Security numbers against Social Security Administration records and allows bulk searches; when it cannot confirm citizenship, the agency that asked must request proof from the voter to register or stay registered. The unsigned majority found the challengers likely have standing through a naturalized citizen in Louisiana whose Social Security record is out of date, but said their claims likely fail because 8 U.S.C. 1373 authorizes DHS to request and receive citizenship information from other agencies. It said the National Voter Registration Act's 90-day bar limits the stay's potential impact before federal elections, while individualized inquiries remain permitted. Justice Jackson, joined by Justices Sotomayor and Kagan, dissented. The stay is not a merits ruling; the government's appeal continues in the D.C. Circuit. The general election is November 3, 2026.
Also filed undersupreme-courtvotingelectionsdhsprivacycitizenship
Social Security's inspector general estimates the agency paid about 333,800 SSI recipients approximately $1 billion they would not have been eligible for because employees left earnings alerts unresolved or cleared them incompletely, and that about $664 million of it cannot be recovered absent a finding of fraud or similar fault.
An audit by the Social Security Administration's Office of the Inspector General, report 022310 dated September 15, 2026, sampled 100 of the 417,291 Supplemental Security Income recipients who had at least one pending earnings alert as of September 2024. An alert means IRS or state wage data exceeded the earnings a recipient reported. Employees had resolved the alerts for 20. For 63 they had not started or finished the review, and for 17 they cleared the alert without recording all earnings. Projecting from the sample, the inspector general estimates SSA paid about 333,800 recipients approximately $1 billion they would not have been eligible to receive, a figure that includes both over- and underpayments. Under SSA's administrative finality rules, about $664 million cannot be recovered absent a determination of fraud or similar fault; about $344 million remains correctable. SSA agreed to implement all three recommendations. SSA's rule for recipients: report a change in earnings no later than the 10th day of the month after the month of change.
Also filed underssiinspector-generalimproper-paymentsauditdisability
Social Security's rules for qualifying for disability with a heart condition change on October 30, for new claims and for claims already pending. Three conditions get their own listing for the first time, and SSA expects the change to raise benefit payments by $540 million over ten years.
The Social Security Administration published revised criteria for evaluating cardiovascular disorders on July 2, 2026, the first full revision since 2006, and they take effect October 30, 2026. They apply to new applications, to claims still pending on that date, and to continuing disability reviews. The rule adds listings for aortic valve disease, cardiomyopathy and cardiac allograft vasculopathy, updates heart failure to current medical terms and thresholds, adds a new invasive measure for ischemic heart disease, and removes the separate listing for children's rheumatic heart disease. SSA estimates net increases of $446 million in Social Security disability benefits and $94 million in SSI over fiscal years 2026 to 2035. A September 16 correction fixed a heading number and changed nothing else. Not meeting a listing does not end a claim: SSA says it does 'not deny any claim solely' on that basis.
Also filed underdisabilityssiheart-diseasefederal-registerbenefits
A record appears here because it carries social-security in its own tags. If a record you expected is missing, it was filed under a different subject — the full list is on the topics index.