Government & Policy
Legislation, executive orders, regulatory changes, and government actions that directly impact personal finances, taxes, benefits, or the economy.
Latest in Government & Policy
Texas homeowners 65 and older can shield $200,000 of home value and freeze their school taxes for life
Homeowners in Texas who reach age 65 gain two separate forms of relief on the property taxes that fund their local schools, and together the...
Seniors 60 and older can deduct medical costs to raise their SNAP benefit
A quirk in the food-stamp rules lets many older Americans turn their doctor bills into a bigger grocery benefit, yet it is one of the...
The number of older adults losing food stamps could top 1 million as SNAP work rules now reach ages 55 to 64
A change buried in last year’s sprawling federal budget law has quietly extended food-stamp work requirements to Americans in their late 50s and early 60s...
Former SAVE-plan borrowers can move to a new Repayment Assistance Plan, but Income-Based Repayment stays the surest path to forgiveness
The Education Department has begun moving roughly 7.5 million borrowers off the SAVE repayment plan after a federal court struck it down, and the servicers...
VA disability pay starts at $180.42 a month for a 10% rating in 2026
A veteran with a 10% disability rating from the Department of Veterans Affairs collects $180.42 a month in tax-free compensation in 2026, the entry point...
A wartime veteran or surviving spouse can qualify for an Aid and Attendance pension worth up to about $2,900 a month
The Department of Veterans Affairs runs a pension that many older veterans never hear about, and its top rate now reaches nearly $2,900 a month....
Veterans’ disability pay is projected to rise about 3.9% for 2027, first appearing in the payment dated December 1
Veterans’ disability compensation is on track for a raise of about 3.9% at the end of 2026, according to projections built on this year’s inflation...
A state circuit-breaker rebate can cut hundreds off a senior’s property taxes
Most property-tax breaks reward a category of homeowner: a senior, a veteran, a farmer. A circuit breaker works from a different premise. It targets the...
Illinois raised its senior property-tax freeze income limit to $75,000 for 2026
For years, a $65,000 income ceiling quietly locked many Illinois seniors out of one of the state’s more valuable property-tax breaks. That threshold has now...
New Jersey’s Stay NJ program now offers eligible homeowners 65 and older up to $6,500 a year in property-tax relief
New Jersey carries the highest average property-tax bill in the country, a burden that steadily pushes longtime residents out of the homes where they raised...
Adults caring for a teenager lose their SNAP work-rule exemption in 2026 unless the youngest child is under 14
A federal rule that took effect on February 1, 2026 quietly redrew the line between which caregivers must work to keep their food stamps and...
A Senate bill from Josh Hawley would send at least $600 per person in tariff rebates, so a family of four could collect $2,400
A bill sitting in the U.S. Senate would hand most Americans a tariff rebate of at least $600 a person, enough for a family of...
A veteran’s monthly disability check rises once the rating reaches 30% and a dependent is added
A veteran’s monthly disability payment from the Department of Veterans Affairs is not a single flat figure. It climbs with the severity of the rated...
The federal Weatherization Assistance Program pays to insulate a low-income senior’s home and cut utility bills
For older homeowners living on a fixed income, a drafty, poorly insulated house is not just uncomfortable; it is a recurring expense that reappears on...
New York raised its senior property-tax exemption to 65% of assessed value for 2026
New York homeowners in their retirement years may see a larger break on their property taxes, though only where their local government chooses to grant...
A new federal plan caps student-loan payments at 1% to 10% of income but stretches forgiveness to 30 years
A federal repayment option that took effect on July 1, 2026 reshapes the math for anyone still carrying student debt, and the tradeoff sits right...
A bipartisan bill would let SSI recipients keep $10,000 in savings, up from a $2,000 cap frozen since 1989
A bipartisan group of lawmakers wants to lift a savings rule that has trapped some of the country’s poorest older and disabled residents for more...
A veteran’s widow can get tax-free VA survivor pay of $1,699.36 a month
The Department of Veterans Affairs pays an eligible surviving spouse a 2026 base Dependency and Indemnity Compensation rate of $1,699.36 a month. DIC is tax-free,...
A 2025 law will cap the home equity that protects Medicaid nursing-home eligibility at $1 million starting 2028
A federal change scheduled for 2028 will put a hard $1 million ceiling on most state Medicaid home-equity limits used for nursing-home and other long-term-care...
A bipartisan Senate bill would force Congress to vote on a fix before Social Security’s retirement and survivor fund can pay only 78% of benefits in 2032
Social Security’s financing problem has produced years of warnings but no enacted repair, and a new Senate proposal aims at that political stalemate rather than...