The Social Security Trustees further estimate that .9 billion in revenues in 2020 would come from the taxation of Social Security benefits. "Yet those revenues are also likely to be lower, impacted by both large numbers of older Americans who lost income from jobs, as well as from lower distributions from retirement accounts that have lost value from last year," Johnson notes. Under the CARES Act, retirees are allowed to completely waive required minimum distributions for 2020 from retirement accounts. .The odds are high that someone you know is receiving lower Social Security benefits than they deserve. Two federal laws – the Government Pension Offset (GPO) and the Windfall Elimination Provision (WEP) – affect millions of our nation's dedicated teachers, firefighters, peace officers, and other public servants by unfairly reducing or eliminating their earned Social Security benefits. .The situation is affecting lower-income seniors with modest resources because states require single seniors to exhaust nearly all of their assets, including their home equity, to qualify for Medicaid. Meyer reports that "Federal Medicaid rules allow states to exempt the home from consideration of financial eligiblilty if the family is making a good faith effort to sell, but not all states do." Depending on where they live, seniors may not qualify for Medicaid if they can't sell their home. .This week, The Senior Citizens League's (TSCL) legislative team met with several Members of Congress and their top staff to discuss legislation that would protect and defend the Social Security benefits of seniors. In addition, members of TSCL's legislative team were in attendance at the Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction's first public hearing. TSCL also saw support grow for a key piece of legislation. .By Representative Alan Nunnelee (MS-1) .Social Security benefits are determined by the income earned (up to the taxable maximum) over a working career, and the number of years worked. The more money you make and pay taxes on, and the more years you work the larger your monthly Social Security benefit will be. The Social Security Administration calculates your benefits based on the 35 years in which you earned the most money. But many women, especially those who become mothers or caregivers, give up a substantial portion of their earnings to care for a family. .My Husband Had a stroke at 6Would He Qualify For Social Security Disability? .COLAs are intended to protect the buying power of Social Security benefits against rising inflation. A new study recently released by TSCL found, however, that the CPI used to calculate COLAs today only does an anemic job of protecting benefits as it is. Since 2000, the COLA has increased just 31 percent, while typical seniors' expenses jumped 73 percent, more than twice as fast. .First, one new cosponsor – Representative Mike Bishop (MI-8) – signed on to the Audiology Patient Choice Act (H.R. 2276), bringing the total up to thirty-three. If adopted, H.R. 2276 would improve Medicare coverage for hearing services that are performed by licensed audiologists. Under current law, audiologists are not recognized as providers of health-related hearing services, and the Medicare program will only reimburse them for their services when patients are referred by physicians or nurse practitioners.