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1619(b) Threshold Amounts for 2024 Are In!

Continued Medicaid Eligibility under Section 1619(b) of the Social Security Act is the crucial work incentive that allows those on Supplemental Security Income (SSI) to continue to remain eligible for Medical Assistance even if their earned income has caused their SSI...

2024 Poverty Guidelines Released

The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) recently published the Federal Poverty Levels (FPL) for this year. There’s a slight increase, as would be expected. To be on the very verge of poverty (100% of FPL) as the federal government has determined, an...

Pay Hike: Maryland Minimum Wage Increases in 2024

While the Federal Minimum Wage languishes forlornly at base camp, clinging to the feeble figure of $7.25 an hour, the noble Maryland Minimum Wage has been making a steady ascent over the past decade or so and has now reached its targeted peak. From January 1 this year...

Happy Holidays from MDBCN!

Below is an illustration of the fact that tastes may change but some sentiments remain the same. This mouse and lobster combination was a genuine Christmas card from the 1880s when the concept of the card was yet inchoate. There’s no current understanding now why the...

Change of Heart: EID Eligibility Expansion Confirmed

In June 2022 we delightedly reported the scrapping of income and resource limits for the hugely popular Medicaid Buy-in program and work incentive Employed Individuals with Disabilities (EID). Eight short months later we learned that the tight-fisted hands at the...

Working Works: It’s Still National Disability Employment Awareness Month

One would like to imagine that it was a failing of this writer's observational powers rather than the lack of promotional ability of the organizers that, but for a fruitless quest for HP sauce* at a local Wegman’s I would not have known that this rapidly diminishing...

COLAs for 2027 Announced!

Social Security published its 2027 Cost of Living Adjustment (COLA) earlier this week. As is almost invariably the case monthly benefit payments will be higher, this year to the tune of 3.6%. For SSI recipients it means that the Federal Benefit Rate (FBR) will rise...

Goodnight, Virginia: SSA Closes VCU’s National Training Center

It was announced last Monday that the WIPA National Training and Data Center, would be shut down with immediate effect. The NTC, which was under the auspices of Virginia Commonwealth University, has been a primary source of training, education and support of Work...

In Exile: Impending Medicaid Eligibility Denials for Non-Citizens

Emma Lazarus’ 1883 sonnet ‘The New Colossus’ was written in the same year that she established in New York the Society for the Improvement and Colonization of East European Jews; an organization designed to provide aid to refugees escaping antisemitic violence and...

Education Matters: Maintaining Child’s Benefits at 18

Much to the dismay of students and teachers, another summer vacation has come and gone and one must again spend those long hours in the classroom looking wistfully out of the window as someone whitters on about some nonsense or other. For a small but significant...

In The Loop: SSA Changes Policy on Re-routing Calls

As anyone who has been obliged to call Social Security knows, the wait time has been prohibitively long. In the last year of the Biden administration the average wait was 60 minutes, which was bad enough, but in 2025 under the present regime that had increased to a...

An August Occasion: Celebrating National ABLE Savings Day

This year August 14 marks, amongst other notable events, the 236th anniversary of the signing of the Treaty of Väräla which brought about an end to the Russo-Swedish War; exactly 124 years later the arrival of British Expeditionary Force in France saw the beginning of...

Priority Treatment: SSA Adds to the Compassionate Allowance List

A fresh press release from Social Security will provide some good news to potential beneficiaries who experience a range of disabilities. Fourteen relatively obscure conditions have been added to the agency’s Compassionate Allowance policy. The policy allows Social...

Won’t Get Food Again: SNAP Eligibility in Decline

Recent articles in The Atlantic and by NPR have highlighted the growing concern in the reduction in the number of food stamp beneficiaries over the past year. The current figure, as estimated by the Department of Agriculture, stands at around 37 million recipients,...

Hear Ye, Hear Ye: Social Security Adds New Features to MySSA Accounts

A recent press release from Social Security looked to encourage applicants who have found themselves having to appeal a denial to use a My Social Security account when working through that process. Evidently very keen on getting you on board, the agency has produced a...