Social Security’s Facebook page is, from time to time, pockmarked with negative reviews of a new phone bot, which the agency said handed nearly 41% of calls in July.

Reverse mortgages: Homeowners 62 and older can use a reverse mortgage to tap into their home equity while continuing to live in the house (and without adding monthly payment obligations to their budgets). This can provide a steady stream of income to offset smaller Social Security payments.

"The Social Security Administration continues to report the good news of improved response times by phone and greater utilization of online services," Drew Powers, the founder of Illinois-based Powers Financial Group, told Newsweek.

The projected 2026 COLA increase is now 2.7%-up from 2.4%, the lowest in years. Here's how the change affects retiree homeowners.

In June 2025, for example, the average Social Security payment to retired workers was $2,005.05. Going back to the start of the year, January 2025, the average Social Security payment for retired workers was $1,978.77. That means the average payment has ticked up by an average of $4.65 per month.

Mavious Redmond was sentenced to prison for pretending to be her deceased mother to claim Social Security Retirement Insurance Benefits for 25 years.

The Social Security Act was signed into law in August 1935 by President Franklin D. Roosevelt and has been a cornerstone of retirement for millions of Americans. Social Security just hit its 90th birthday.

Her focus is reporting on Social Security, other government benefits and personal finance. She has previously extensively covered U.S. and European politics, Russia's invasion of Ukraine and the British Royal Family.

Social Security is a crucial income source that many retirees rely on pretty heavily to help them make ends meet. While these benefits only replace around 40% of pre-retirement income, they are guaranteed to last for life,

A Bradford County man is accused of stealing hundreds of thousands of dollars in Social Security and VA benefits over an almost 20 year period.