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While the talk about the future of Social Security might be part of the political white noise to people just entering the workforce, for people at the other end, it’s becoming an existential crisis. As the Social Security Administration greatly reduces its staff and changes benefit claims requirements, there has been a growing fear that the safety net for seniors could be about to vanish or be considerably weakened. (Those fears escalated in February, when Elon Musk described Social Security as a Ponzi scheme to podcaster Joe Rogan.) While Donald Trump has vowed not to reduce benefits, his push to cut government spending has raised concerns he could revise that promise. That’s leading a growing number of people to begin claiming benefits earlier than planned. The number of pending Social Security claims for retirement, survivor, and health insurance benefits was 580,887 in March, according to a report in The Wall Street Journal. That’s notably higher than the 500,527 who filed in 2023. The number of calls to the agency since the beginning of October has been 19% higher than they were a year ago. And traffic to the website is higher as well. A March Gallup poll found that more than 75% of Americans worried about the fate of Social Security either a great or fair deal. If you, a parent, or a friend are nearing the point in which taking your Social Security benefits early is an option, here are a few things to keep in mind. Is Social Security in danger of being eliminated? There has been no talk from the Trump administration about doing away with Social Securityand Trump has said he will not cut benefits. That said, current projections have the Social Security Trust Funds, which are used to pay current benefits, running out of money in 2041. Should that happen, it won’t mean benefits will disappear, however. A study by the Social Security Trustees found the agency would still be able to pay 83% of scheduled benefits from incoming payrolls should the funds be depleted. The study looked as far ahead as 2098, when it said the SSA would still be able to cover 73% of scheduled benefits if the funds are depleted as early as 2035. How early can I claim Social Security benefits? The earliest you can claim retirement benefits from the Social Security Administration is the age of 62. You can start the application process for that up to four months in advance. Can I continue to work while claiming Social Security benefits? You can, but that complicates things. You’ll face an earnings limitand if you exceed that, it will impact your benefit amount. If you are under full retirement age, the SSA deducts $1 from your benefit payments for every $2 you earn above the annual limit. Early claims also lower that number. The earnings limit for people who have not reached their full retirement age (which varies depending on the year you were born) in 2025 is $23,400. But the earnings limit for people reaching full retirement age in 2025 is $62,160. How much does claiming Social Security benefits early impact what I receive? It really comes down to how early you decide to claim benefits. While you can file for those at 62, doing so will reduce your benefit to 70% of the maximum amount. Waiting a year takes that up to 75%. And if you wait until 64, you can get 80% of the benefit. If you hold out until the age of 67 you will get the full benefit. (Waiting until 70 yields even greater benefits for most people, unlocking a “delayed retirement” credit, which could be as much as 16% higher than the amount you would have received at 67.) To put that in real world dollar amounts: If you retire at age 67 in 2025, your maximum benefit would be $4,018 a month. However, if you retire at age 62, your maximum benefit would be $2,831 a month. (People who wait until 70 would see a maximum benefit of $5,108 a month.) Does claiming Social Security benefits early impact future cost-of-living adjustments? It does. Taking your Social Security benefits early means you will get lower cost-of-living adjustments to your Social Security payments in subsequent years. Those are calculated each year to help adjust SSA payments for inflation. Can I change my mind after I begin collecting benefits? You can, but you don’t have a big window to do so. You can withdraw your original application within 12 months of the date of your first payment, but you can only do that one time. If you do that, you will be responsible for returning every dollar you received in that time as well. What’s the impact on my spouse if I claim Social Security benefits early? Spouses can receive benefits based on their partner’s retirement benefit, generally 50%. But if you claim your benefits early, that not only reduces the size of your monthly check, but also that of your spouse by between 30% and 35%. Given all the downsides, when should someone claim Social Security benefits early? The SSA, in a March 28 meeting, said, Fearmongering has driven people to claim benefits earlier, The Wall Street Journal reports. There are, however, some legitimate reasons to claim benefits early. If, for example, someone is in poor health, the income from Social Security can go a long way to offset medical expenses. And if you’re in a dual-income family and you’re the lower wage earner, claiming early while your spouse waits to file could be a strategic choice that gets Social Security income flowing into your house, with more to come a few years later.
Category:
E-Commerce
The winner of this year’s West Virginia Coal Festival teen beauty pageant walks among the ruins of a community abandoned 70 years ago and imagines the rusted remains of coal tipples and processing plants coming back to life. Ava Johnson knows West Virginia coal will not ever be what it once was. But as she makes her way along overgrown railroad tracks near the abandoned Kay Moor mine in the New River Gorge National Park looking for spikes for her collection, the 16-year-old history buff says she has heard people talking with hope about the future of an industry that has brought good-paying jobs to her state for the better part of two centuries. You cant appreciate being a true West Virginian unless you realize that people risk their lives every single day to make ours better, she said. Much of that renewed sense of hope is based on the actions of President Donald Trump, who earlier this month issued new executive orders aimed at reviving an energy source that has long been flagged by scientists as the world’s most polluting fossil fuel, one that directly contributes to the warming of the planet. Trump, who has pledged since his first run for the presidency in 2016 to save coal, issued orders to allow mining on federal land and to loosen some emissions standards meant to curb coals environmental impact. All those plants that have been closed are going to be opened, if they’re modern enough, Trump said at the signing ceremony. (or) theyll be ripped down and brand-new ones will be built. The news was met with enthusiasm in West Virginia, where residents like Johnson say the coal industry is misunderstood and that they are tired of feeling unheard by their fellow Americans. But others do not think Trump will be able to fulfill promises he has made to some of his most loyal constituents. Trump and his allies are spinning a false narrative,” said Tyson Slocum, who teaches energy and climate policy at the University of Maryland Honors College and is the energy program director for the nonprofit Public Citizen. He said market forces have shifted away from coal in ways that cannot be reversed, an opinion widely shared among economists. Theres nothing that Trump can do thats going to materially impact the domestic coal market, Slocum said in a telephone interview. The energy markets, the steel markets, have fundamentally changed. And learning how to adapt and how to provide the real solutions to the concerns and fears in coal communities would be a more effective strategy than promising them a return that isnt going to happen. At a coal exposition, renewed optimism That was not the prevailing mood at a recent coal exposition in Charleston, attended by Johnson and many others who found encouragement in the Republican president’s words, even if some expressed skepticism about his ability to make coal great again. For years, our industry has felt like its been a little bit of a whipping boy, like a political, sacrificial pawn, said Steven Tate of Viacore, a company that makes an apparatus that helps mine operators limit the amount of coal dust in a mine. We feel like were finally starting to get the recognition that our industry deserves. Some said Trump’s orders demonstrated respect for workers who gave their lives in the mines 21,000 in West Virginia, the most out of any state and for a resource that helped build America. Trump stood his ground all the way through,” said Jimbo Clendenin, a retired mine equipment specialist whose grandson started working in coal mining three years ago. “He said he was for coal. And a lot of people even a couple of them here in West Virginia said, I just think he said that to get into office. “Now, nobodys got any doubt. Hes for coal. In recent decades, the Democratic Partys aggressive push toward clean energy led to the installation of more renewable energy and the conversion of coal-fired plants to be fueled by cheaper and cleaner-burning natural gas. In 2016, Trump seized on the issue, promising to end what he described as Democratic President Barack Obamas war on coal and to save miners jobs. It helped in West Virginia, where a majority of voters in every county supported Trump in three presidential elections. Trump did not bring the industry back during his first term. In West Virginia, which employs the most miners of any state, the number of coal jobs fell from 11,561 at the start of his presidency to 11,418 at the end of 2020, perhaps slowing coals steep decline but not stopping it. Slocum said Trump can defang the federal Environmental Protection Agency and deregulate mining, but he cannot save coal. It’s not the EPA, its not Democrats that declared this war on coal, Slocum said. It was capitalism and natural gas. And being honest about the reasons for coals decline is the least we can do for coal-dependent communities instead of lying to them, which the Trump administration is doing. Sometimes people want to believe a lie, because its easier than facing a hard truth. A steady decline in jobs In 2009, the EPA found that planet-warming greenhouse gases put public health and welfare in danger, a determination that new EPA chief Lee Zeldin has urged Trump to reconsider. Scientists oppose Zeldins push, and Slocum said the endangerment finding and the need to move away from coal dependence is not a theoretical debate. It is a factual, scientific one, albeit one that does not occur within the current Trump administration. Still, there is no doubt that the culture of coal is woven into the fabric of West Virginia. A miner can be a coal industry worker, but also a sports team mascot, an image emblazoned on the state flag or the name of a breakfast sandwich at Tudors Biscuit World. In the 1950s, more than 130,000 West Virginians worked in the industry, which then had a population of around 2 million. Production peaked in 2008, a year before Johnson was born. But by then, the number of coal workers had dropped to 25,000, mostly due to mechanization. Heather Clay, who runs West Virginia Coal Festivals beauty pageant and social media, said loing coal jobs often six-figure incomes was especially significant in a state with one of the nations highest poverty rates. Its so much more than what people outside of West Virginia understand, she said. Theyre always saying, Shut down coal, Shut down coal. So you want to shut down our economy? You want to shut down our families? You want to shut down our way of life? And it has, for a lot of people. Innovation, not elimination Trump and coal industry advocates say keeping coal in the U.S. energy portfolio is essential for maintaining the power grid, servicing growing demand from innovations like artificial intelligence centers and keeping America energy-independent. But John Deskins, director of the West Virginia University Bureau of Business and Economic Research, said it would take a significant shift in the underlying economics for it to make financial sense for utilities to build new coal-fired plants. Natural gas is cleaner and cheaper, he said, and its the direction most utilities are moving in. Earlier this year, First Energy announced plans to convert its two remaining coal-fired power plants to natural gas. Johnson wears the sash and crown from her pageant victory over a black dress and sneakers as she traipses through the ruins of the abandoned Kay Moor mine. She talks enthusiastically about the industry’s past, but also, occasionally, about what she thinks could be a brighter future for coal in West Virginia because of what Trump has done. I think that it will positively impact not just the industry,” she said, but people’s lives. Leah Willingham and John Raby, Associated Press
Category:
E-Commerce
As pressure grows to get artificial colors out of the U.S. food supply, the shift may well start at Abby Tampows laboratory desk. On an April afternoon, the scientist hovered over tiny dishes of red dye, each a slightly different ruby hue. Her task? To match the synthetic shade used for years in a commercial bottled raspberry vinaigrettebut by using only natural ingredients. With this red, it needs a little more orange, Tampow said, mixing a slurry of purplish black carrot juice with a bit of beta-carotene, an orange-red color made from algae. Tampow is part of the team at Sensient Technologies Corp., one of the worlds largest dyemakers, that is rushing to help the salad dressing manufactureralong with thousands of other American businessesmeet demands to overhaul colors used to brighten products from cereals to sports drinks. Most of our customers have decided that this is finally the time when theyre going to make that switch to a natural color, said Dave Gebhardt, Sensients senior technical director. He joined a recent tour of the Sensient Colors factory in a north St. Louis neighborhood. Last week, U.S. health officials announced plans to persuade food companies to voluntarily eliminate petroleum-based artificial dyes by the end of 2026. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. called them poisonous compounds that endanger childrens health and development, citing limited evidence of potential health risks. The federal push follows a flurry of state laws and a January decision to ban the artificial dye known as Red 3found in cakes, candies and some medicationsbecause of cancer risks in lab animals. Social media influencers and ordinary consumers have ramped up calls for artificial colors to be removed from foods. A change to natural colors may not be fast The FDA allows about three dozen color additives, including eight remaining synthetic dyes. But making the change from the petroleum-based dyes to colors derived from vegetables, fruits, flowers and even insects wont be easy, fast, or cheap, said Monica Giusti, an Ohio State University food color expert. Study after study has shown that if all companies were to remove synthetic colors from their formulations, the supply of the natural alternatives would not be enough, Giusti said. We are not really ready. It can take six months to a year to convert a single product from a synthetic dye to a natural one. And it could require three to four years to build up the supply of botanical products necessary for an industrywide shift, Sensient officials said. Its not like theres 150 million pounds of beet juice sitting around waiting on the off chance the whole market may convert, said Paul Manning, the company’s chief executive. Tens of millions of pounds of these products need to be grown, pulled out of the ground, extracted. To make natural dyes, Sensient works with farmers and producers around the world to harvest the raw materials, which typically arrive at the plant as bulk concentrates. Theyre processed and blended into liquids, granules, or powders and then sent to food companies to be added to final products. Natural dyes are harder to make and use than artificial colors. They are less consistent in color, less stable and subject to changes related to acidity, heat, and light, Manning said. Blue is especially difficult. There aren’t many natural sources of the color, and those that exist can be hard to maintain during processing. Also, a natural color costs about 10 times more to make than the synthetic version, Manning estimated. How do you get that same vividness, that same performance, that same level of safety in that product as you would in a synthetic product? he said. Theres a lot of complexity associated with that. The insects that could make Barbie pink naturally Companies have long used the Red 3 synthetic dye to create what Sensient officials describe as the Barbie pink. To create that color with a natural source might require the use of cochineal, an insect about the size of a peppercorn. The female insects release a vibrant red pigment, carminic acid, in their bodies and eggs. The bugs live only on prickly pear cactuses in Peru and elsewhere. About 70,000 cochineal insects are needed to produce 1 kilogram, about 2.2 pounds, of dye. It’s interesting how the most exotic colors are found in the most exotic places, said Norb Nobrega, who travels the world scouting new hues for Sensient. Artificial dyes are used widely in U.S. foods. About 1 in 5 food products in the U.S. contains added colors, whether natural or synthetic, Manning estimated. Many contain multiple colors. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration requires a sample of each batch of synthetic colors to be submitted for testing and certification. Color additives derived from plant, animal or mineral sources are exempt, but have been evaluated by the agency. Health advocates have long called for the removal of artificial dyes from foods, citing mixed studies indicating they can cause neurobehavioral problems, including hyperactivity and attention issues, in some children. The FDA says that the approved dyes are safe when used according to regulations and that most children have no adverse effects when consuming foods containing color additives. But critics note that added colors are a key component of ultraprocessed foods, which account for more than 70% of the U.S. diet and have been associated with a host of chronic health problems, including heart disease, diabetes, and obesity. I am all for getting artificial food dyes out of the food supply, said Marion Nestle, a food policy expert. They are strictly cosmetic, have no health or safety purpose, are markers of ultraprocessed foods and may be harmful to some children. The cautionary tale of Trix cereal Color is powerful driver of consumer behavior and changes can backfire, Giusti noted. In 2016, food giant General Mills removed artificial dyes from Trix cereal after requests from consumers, switching to natural sources including turmeric, strawberries and radishes. But the cereal lost its neon colors, resulting in more muted huesand a consumer backlash. Trix fans said they missed the bright colors and familiar taste of the cereal. In 2017, the company switched back. When its a product you already love, thatyoure used to consuming, and it changes slightly, then it may not really be the same experience, Giusti said. Announcing a regulatory change is one step, but then the implementation is another thing. Kennedy, the health secretary, said U.S. officials have an understanding with food companies to phase out artificial colors. Industry officials told The Associated Press that there is no formal agreement. However, several companies have said they plan to accelerate a shift to natural colors in some of their products. PepsiCo CEO Ramon Laguarta said most of its products are already free of artificial colors, and that its Lays and Tostitos brands will phase them out by the end of this year. He said the company plans to phase out artificial colorsor at least offer consumers a natural alternativeover the next few years. Representatives for General Mills said theyre committed to continuing the conversation with the administration. WK Kellogg officials said they are reformulating cereals used in the nations school lunch programs to eliminate the artificial dyes and will halt any new products containing them starting next January. Sensient officials wouldnt confirm which companies are seeking help making the switch, but they said theyre ready for the surge. Now that theres a date, theres the timeline, Manning said. It certainly requires action. ___ The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institutes Science and Educational Media Group and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content. Jonel Aleccia, AP health writer Dee-Ann Durbin contributed to this report.
Category:
E-Commerce
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