New Medicare cards will replace your "old" Medicare number, which was most likely your Social Security number, with a new 11-digit Medicare number.

You should receive your new card by mail by April, 2019.

In the 1970s and earlier, prisoners were able to receive Social Security benefits. However, nowadays, people convicted of a crime and doing time in prison in general can not receive Social Security benefits.

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Or to be more precise, benefits are suspended if someone is convicted of a criminal offense and sent to jail or prison for more than 30 continuous days. Notice that conviction is the key. Lots of people end up in jails while they are awaiting trial or pleas. But until there is a conviction with prison time involved, benefits will continue.

Immigrants not authorized to work in the country cannot legally obtain Social Security numbers, said Kenneth Bagner, a certified public accountant with Sobel and Co. in Livingston.

He said if an unauthorized immigrant worker has a Social Security number, fraud has been committed.

With today's relatively low inflation, combined with the fact that your Social Security benefit will grow if you delay benefits, it makes sense to delay benefits because (or if) :

1) You'll get higher inflation-adjusted benefits for life

2) If you're in good health

3) If you don't need the money

When applying for benefits, the Social Security Administration will assign a "Beneficiary Identification Code" (BIC) after your Social Security number.

So in paperwork from the SSA, you may see the following codes appended after your Social Security number :

If you receive Social Security Disability (SSD) benefits and file for bankruptcy, your checks are usually safe.

If your benefits come from SSI, which is a welfare program for the needy, they are always exempt from creditor claims.

However, SSDI payments technically qualify as "work" income, so they may be subject to bankruptcy claims.

The 2.2 percent COLA (cost of living allowance) increase expected for 2018 will be the largest benefit increase since the 3.6 COLA of 2012.

The COLA for 2016 was 0.3 percent.

YES.

You can sign up for Medicare even though you haven't yet signed up for Social Security. In fact, delaying Social Security retirement benefits may work to your advantage.

However, you do not want to delay signing up for Medicare benefits. But, if you fail to sign up for Medicare during your initial enrollment period, you'll face a 10 percent increase in your Part B premiums that could raise your healthcare costs for life.

This is a good article which provides a good overview of the tax policies of states regarding Social Security benefits.

About 40 percent of public school teachers aren't covered by Social Security. In other words, teachers in 15 states aren't covered by Social Security. In these states, teachers don't pay Social Security taxes, and instead rely on state-run pensions.