People who have limited income can get help with Part D drug costs – but finding the application on the Social Security web site is not easy.
There used to be a link for “Extra Help” right on the home page for SSA.gov, but it is no longer there. I have found it before by clicking on the “online services” link, but today I could not find it through that page. I used the search box in the upper right hand corner of the SSA.gov home page and typed in “extra help”.
Here is the page I found: https://secure.ssa.gov/i1020/start
On this page you can look at the rules for getting help. You might find you don’t qualify for this help if:
Your combined savings, investments, and real estate are worth more than $26,860 if you are married and living with your spouse, or $13,440 if you are not currently married or not living with your spouse.
If you have very little money saved (including IRAs, 401Ks) , then qualifying for this help is based on income. If you are living on your Social Security check, you put that into the application and Social Security will check your records.
The income limit for this getting help is $1,458.75/month ($17,505/year) for an individual; $1,966.25/month ($23,595/year) for a couple. Applicants should add $20 to account for the income disregard.
For more detail on the getting help with Part D drug costs, see this post: https://medicareblog.org/help-for-part-d-drug-costs-in-2014/