Presently widows get 5k in property tax exemptions, and in most states surviving spouse of military are exempt if veteran was on disability but there is a problem with that exemption bc it in Fl for example it says the veteran had to live in the home. Well many widows are forced to move after the death of their spouse. Many move to be closer to their children or other family for support. So we buy a new home and boom, it doesn’t qualify for total exemption because the deceased never lived there bc he’s dead, he can’t obviously, it’s a stupid rule, and the right of that exemption should pass in entirety regardless of if the spouse has to buy a new home and relocate. Widows are normally living on half an income and is barely enough when fed and state taxes including property taxes take the majority of money. We are penalized if we take survivor benefits at 62 and receive less a benefit than if at retirement age. Many can’t survive waiting the extra years because their family income was taken with the passing of their spouse. The irs provides little to no relief for widows owing taxes. Qualifying for any assistance is a joke despite that many of us live on under 30k a yr and often have children or other family to provide and care for.
Also DIC is a wonderful benefit but if you have adult kids and no care help you get $1612 to live on. In this inflation it’s nearly impossible. Can the powers to be maybe raise that a bit, DIC is less than social security. Very grateful to have it but for seniors we are still in poverty bc of the taxes. I don’t have a solid solution, I just know myself and other widows need help, maybe create a widow relief bill. Thank you!
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All widows should receive at least half of their dead husbands SSI.
We were both on SSI retired but then he died and now I am struggling with only have our planned income I am living on credit cards to make ends meet and drowning