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THURSDAY. JULY 20. 2023 PICKENS COUNTY PROGRESS PAGE 3A
Social Security Matters
From the Association of Mature
American Citizens
Why Can’t I
Collect Survivor
Benefits from My
Deceased Wife?
I am a 62 year old wid
ower that is still working
full time. While my late
spouse was in hospice, I
was able to get her to apply
for Social Security disabil
ity and she received one
payment before she passed
away two years ago.
I was told that I could
collect a survivor benefit, so
I called my local Social Se
curity office, but they told
me that I could not collect
any type of benefits from
my wife and that all the
money she paid into SS for
all of those years was basi
cally gone for good.
Would you please advise
what I can do and if this is
true? I was also told that
Social Security’s agents will
do everything they can to
avoid paying out benefits.
Signed: Frustrated Wid
ower
Dear Frustrated Wid
ower:
I suspect that the reason
Social Security said you were
not eligible for benefits as a
widower is because you are
working full time. At age 62,
you are subject to Social Se
curity’s “earnings test” which
limits how much you can
earn while collecting early
Social Security benefits.
The 2023 earnings limit is
$21,240 and, if that is ex
ceeded, SS will take away $1
in benefits for every $2 you
are over the limit. If your
earnings are high enough,
that could make you tem
porarily ineligible to collect
benefits until 1) your earn
ings are less, or 2) you reach
your full retirement age
(FRA) when the earnings test
no longer applies.
Assuming you have not
yet claimed your personal SS
retirement benefit, you are
still eligible to collect a sur
vivor benefit from your wife
when your earnings are less
or after you reach your full
retirement age.
One strategy you may
wish to consider, if you plan
to keep working full time, is
to wait and claim only your
surviving spouse benefit at
your FRA (67), thus allowing
your personal SS retirement
benefit to continue growing
until you are 70 when your
personal SS retirement bene
fit will be about 75% more
than it would be now. Al
though your survivor benefit
reaches maximum at your
FRA, your personal benefit
doesn’t reach maximum until
age 70, so it’s possible to col
lect your smaller survivor
benefit from your wife first
and claim your higher per
sonal benefit later.
You were apparently
given some confusing infor
mation when you contacted
Social Security. If you
haven’t already claimed your
own SS retirement benefit,
you are still eligible for a sur
viving spouse benefit from
your wife but likely cannot
collect a widower benefit at
this time because you’re
working full time. However,
that doesn’t mean you can
never collect a survivor ben
efit; only that you can’t col
lect it at this time because of
the “earnings test.”
The earnings test goes
away when you reach age 67,
so you can claim only your
survivor benefit at that time
(or before if you no longer
work full time) and allow
your personal SS retirement
benefit to continue to grow
(to age 70 if you like).
From our experience with
the Social Security Adminis
tration, the skill level of SSA
representatives varies but we
have never suspected their
goal was trying to avoid pay
ing benefits due.
Nevertheless, depending
on the agent you spoke with,
the information provided
may have been less clear
about the best claiming strat
egy for you - which is why
the AMAC Foundation’s So
cial Security Advisory Serv
ice exists. Our advisors are
all highly experienced and
strive to provide you with
complete and clear informa
tion which enables you to
make an informed choice
about how and when to claim
the Social Security benefits
you are entitled to. I hope we
have succeeded.
This article is intended for
information purposes only
and does not represent legal
or financial guidance. It pres
ents the opinions and inter
pretations of the AMAC
Foundation’s staff, trained
and accredited by the Na
tional Social Security Asso
ciation (NSSA). NSSA and
the AMAC Foundation and
its staff are not affiliated with
or endorsed by the Social Se
curity Administration or any
other governmental entity. To
submit a question, visit
amacfoundation.org/pro-
grams/social-security-advi-
sory or email us at
ssadvisor@amacfoundation.org.
Start of eligibility 'redetermination' knocks
almost 100,000 Georgians off Medicaid
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The state has launched an ad campaign to raise aware
ness of Medicaid eligibility redetermination.
By Dave Williams
Bureau Chief
Capitol Beat News Service
Nearly 100,000 Georgians
have lost Medicaid coverage
since the federal public
health emergency brought on
by the pandemic expired in
April, the state Department
of Community Health (DCH)
reported Thursday.
The federal government
prohibited disenrolling any
Medicaid recipients for three
years after COVID-19 struck
the nation in March 2020.
With the public health emer
gency at an end, states began
a year-long process of re
assessing eligibility for those
on Medicaid this spring.
Georgia began processing
renewal applications for
216,991 Georgians in June
for Medicaid or PeachCare
for Kids. At the close of the
month, 64,423 of these Geor
gians were renewed while
95,578 lost coverage.
Nearly 57,000 renewal
applications remain pending
and will retain coverage
while those recipients’ eligi
bility is determined.
The vast majority of those
who lost coverage — 89,168 —
were procedurally terminated
due to lack of information re
ceived by the DCH to make
an eligibility determination.
In April, the state agency
estimated that about half a
million Georgians were
newly enrolled in Medicaid
and PeachCare for Kids dur
ing the pandemic, bringing
the total number of enrollees
to about 2.7 million, about a
quarter of the state’s popula
tion.
The state was able to au
tomatically renew 50,607
Georgia Medicaid enrollees
last month by using available
data on those recipients, in
cluding data from programs
such as the Supplemental
Nutrition Assistance Pro
gram (SNAP) - commonly
known as food stamps - or
Temporary Assistance for
Needy Families (TANF).
Those who could not be
renewed automatically re
ceived renewal packets from
the DCH. As of June 30, the
agency had received more
than 46,000 completed pack
ets.
The state also contacted
affected Medicaid enrollees
through other means, includ
ing phone calls and text mes
sages at 30 and 15 days
before their “redetermina
tion” deadline.
Working with other state
agencies, the DCH launched
a statewide public informa
tion campaign including TV
and radio ads in English and
Spanish, social media out
reach, digital advertising, bus
shelter signs, billboards, and
media outreach.
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TEST
Think you
know
Pickens?
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The Pickens Puzzler is featured every third week of the
month in the Progress. The answers can be found on the
classified pages in the B section.
Across
6. Neighbor to north, w/apples
7. Southern sweet, baked fruit and batter
8. A read about recently deceased, in newspapers
10. Jasper , cinema once on Main
12. Unincorporated; has marble; has school
15. Where veggies once went in jars, cans
17. Park with recently repaved path
18. Boys & Club, off Camp
19. Compressed hay, meal for cows
Down
1. Grocer, coming soon to 515
2. Yellow Creek grand garden go-to
3. Opening soon for students
4. Cherokee removal road, in parts of Pickens
5. Nearly one on every corner, amens
9. City Hall neighbor w/popular pumpkin rolls
10. Tiny town, boasts brewery, babbling creek
11. They'll flush where old bank drive-thru was
13. Wigington Park, soon to be for bikes
14. Off 52, with waterfall
16. Progress' front page feel-good series
The Pickens Puzzler is proudly sponsored by:
<M: State Farm
Alan Horne, Jr., Agent
95 Whitfield Drive, Suite F
Jasper, GA 30143
Bus: 706-692-2888