#social-security

#social-security

According to research from the Senior Citizens League, 2/3 of seniors rely on Social Security for over half of the income that they receive. Since Social Security benefits are such an important income source for so many, it's worth carefully considering when you should claim benefits. You can start collecting Social Security retirement income when you are just 62 years old, but that is well below the full retirement age that you'll need to reach in order to claim your standard (unreduced) benefit.

While reaching retirement age can be both a blessing and a curse, relying on the U.S. government to provide for your needs is not the best idea. The full retirement age is 66 if you were born from 1943 to 1954. The full retirement age increases gradually for those born from 1955 to 1960, reaching 67. For anyone born in 1960 or later, full retirement benefits are payable at age 67.

It may come as a surprise to many Americans that there's a fixed limit (it's 10) on the number of Social Security cards you can get. Undoubtedly, you may think that it's quite hard to lose such an important piece of identification 10 times in a lifetime, but it does happen, especially to those who don't have access to secure places to store such sensitive materials.

A whistleblower accused officials tied to the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) of putting the personal details of hundreds of millions of Americans at risk by uploading the Social Security Administration's (SSA) most sensitive database into a vulnerable cloud server. Charles Borges, the SSA's chief data officer, made the allegation in a complaint filed with the Office of Special Counsel and Congress in which he warned that DOGE's handling of the so-called Numident file, which contains every Social Security number ever issued, exposed the data to enormous vulnerabilities.

Under the One Big Beautiful Bill, seniors will see their Social Security income shielded from federal taxes-an adjustment projected to benefit 100,000 retirees in the state. The White House reports that 88% of Social Security recipients will pay no federal income tax on those benefits beginning with the 2026 tax year. That's up from just 64% under previous law and represents 14.2 million additional seniors keeping more of their retirement income.

The OBBBA created a deduction specifically for seniors: $6,000 for individuals over age 65 and $12,000 for qualifying couples, increasing the total deductions significantly.

The legislation introduces a senior deduction that exempts most Social Security benefits from federal taxation, bringing financial relief to roughly 200,000 retirees in Delaware.