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Modifications Made to SSI Mobile Wage Reporting

Aug 5, 2022

The Social Security Administration has had in place for a few years now various options for SSI recipients to report their earnings. Where once it was advisable to go in person to your local office or to fax your pay stubs, you could also just call in and let a worker...

In Case of Emergency Only: MA for Undocumented Marylanders

Jul 29, 2022

As a general rule in Maryland if you are living here but undocumented you are entitled to no health insurance coverage at all, However, there is a little caveat to that regulation which allows a short period of Medical Assistance coverage. You could qualify if you’ve...

Speculation Mounting on Huge Social Security Benefits Increases in 2023

Jul 22, 2022

Several media outlets have recently published stories on the prospects of a large hike in Social Security benefits in the new year, with projections of there being as much as a 10.5% percent increase in 2023. The annual Social Security Cost of Living Adjustment (COLA)...

Mental Health Concerns? Just Dial 988 for Help

Jul 14, 2022

From this Saturday July 16 anyone in the US experiencing mental health distress can simply call or text the number 988 to get connected with a trained counselor. A suicide prevention hotline has been around for 17 years now but the current number (1-800-273-8255) has...

P- EBT Payments May Be on Their Way Soon

Jun 24, 2022

Pandemic Electronic Benefits Transfers (P-EBT) have been around since 2020 and is a program to help families with children pay for food when the youngsters are not in school. The system was set up to provide retroactive payment to any kids who missed school due to any...

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Oscillate Wildly: Changes to SSDI Overpayment Recovery Rates

It may have escaped your attention, as it did this writer’s, that on August 29 this year Social Security issued Emergency Message 25029 REV. Emergency Messages are the agency’s method of notifying every office of the new protocols to follow. This one’s purpose is to...

Tapping In: Maryland’s Assistive Technology Financial Loan Program

To judge from the figures presented in the 2024 review of Maryland Department of Disabilities’ Technical Assistance Program (MDTAP) there’s not much knowledge within the state of the program itself or any of its projects. MDTAP has provided the Assistive Technology...

Listen Up: Maryland DDA’s Low Intensity Support Services Program Accepting Applications

Maryland’s Developmental Disabilities Administration (DDA) has long understood the need to provide funding to children and adults in the community in order that they might lead happier and more fully integrated lives in the community. What was once called Rolling...

Social Security Turns 90!

To commemorate this landmark birthday, we've re-published the open letter from Frank Bisignano, the agency's current commissioner. Today, we celebrate the 90th anniversary of Social Security—a program that has stood as a pillarof economic security and dignity for...

Healthy Options? USDA Encouraging SNAP Food Restrictions

In further changes under the new administration (remarkably, it has only been seven months) the United States Department of Agriculture’s Food and Nutrition Services are now actively seeking states to implement further restrictions on what you can buy with food...

As You Were: VCU’s National Training and Data Center Re-opens

Last week we reported that Virginia Commonwealth’s NTDC has been closed and all services terminated. This week Social Security announced that the center is open once more. Melanie Webb, the Branch Chief of SSA’s Employment Programs, sent out an n email to the nation’s...

VCU’s National Training and Data Center Closed Down

Benefits Counselors around the country received the news today that Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU) was forced to close the National Training and Data Center (NTDC) on July 29. The brief announcement from Melanie Webb, Branch Chief of Employment Programs at...

Salt in the Wound: OBBBA and Cuts to Medicaid for Non- Citizens

Further to our recent blog on the One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA) and its plan to cut Medicaid funding, here’s some more bad news brought to you by your government. This time the target is Non-Citizens. At present there are some severe limitations to eligibility...

Stopped Check: SSA to Eliminate Paper Payments to Beneficiaries

These days if you are to order a new batch of checks you are given a choice of designs for the background and can even select a personal message line. You may notice, however, that the choices appear to skew towards appealing to an older demographic. One recent option...

Uncivil Service: OBBBA and Medicaid Work Requirements

The One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA) that was recently signed into law by the current incumbent in the White House has within its hundreds of provisions a number of cuts to Medicaid funding under the pretext that there’s vast and widespread fraud and cheating going...