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Moving Up: HUD’s Family Self Sufficiency Program

May 19, 2023

For over thirty years now the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development, more familiarly known as HUD, has been administering the Family Self Sufficiency (FSS) program. The purpose of FSS being to encourage those who are receiving HUD funded rental...

MDA Initiative to Help Maryland Food Bank to Buy Local

May 12, 2023

In an effort to increase food access across the state, the Maryland Department of Agriculture (MDA) has announced that it has signed on to an initiative funded by the US Department of Agriculture-Agricultural Marketing Service which will enable local farmers...

Proof of Delivery? Conclusions from the POD Project

Apr 28, 2023

On these pages back at the tail end of 2017 we let you know about POD (Promoting Opportunity Demonstration). POD was a new demonstration project that Social Security was implementing to see how a different set of work incentives might change outcomes for working SSDI...

Whatever Happened to SSA’s Red Book?

Apr 24, 2023

Social Security were in the practice of publishing an annual version of their highly comprehensive guide to work incentives for those on SSDI and SSI but, like a disused KN95 mask, it appears to have fallen by the wayside. SSA’s Red Book webpage shows the last full...

National Disability Forum Coming Soon!

Apr 7, 2023

Social Security have announced the date and topic of their next National Disability Forum. The focus will be “Aspects of Childhood Disability and Childhood SSI” and is set for 1pm on April 19. In keeping with the times it’s going to be a virtual meeting held...

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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...