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Your Turn: What Do You Want to Discuss in 2023?

As we start another trip around the sun, we’ll keep the updates coming as they arrive but all the while we’d like to look to you to give us any suggestions on what you’d like to know more about, or to ask us any benefits-related questions that we haven’t yet...

Looking Forward to ’23: Reminder of the New Facts and Figures

Another year in the books and off we go again! As we wish you all the very best of luck and happiness in 2023 here's a quick look once more at some of the pertinent figures that we'll need to be aware of in the coming months. Maryland's minimum wage continues its...

Happy Holidays from MDBCN!

How did we get here again, and so quickly too? Another year has raced by and has served us up, to different degrees and with new variations, the quotidian grind interlaced with despair, sorrow, hope and even, perhaps, moments of genuine joy. We hope that 2022 was, on...

Social Security Sanctions Self-Selecting Sex for SSN Records

Not a title for those with a lisp, but the SSA recently announced a policy change that will allow anyone to self-select their sex designation no matter what the records on their birth certificate may show.  There's no need to provide any documentation at all but if...

Worth Remembering: SSA Resources and Benefits for Veterans

Armistice Day commemorates the ending of the First World War on November 11, 1918 and although the US were hardly involved in that conflict it is observed in this country each year in on that date. Here it's known, of course, as Veterans Day and has come to...

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...

Summer Break: Maryland’s SUN Bucks Program

Originally launched by Governor Wes Brown back in 2024 Maryland’s Summer Electronic Benefits Transfer program, which trades under the SUN Bucks title, is back for another year. SUN Bucks is the state’s provision to allow eligible families with children aged between 5...

Food Security: New EBT Cards Coming Soon!

Maryland’s Department of Human Resources announced last week that they would be rolling out new Electronic Benefits Transfer (EBT) cards as part of a modernization plan designed to ward off food stamp thievery. The new cards will have the same capabilities as regular...

No Going Back: Medicaid Retroactive Eligibility Span Reduced

The Budget Reconciliation Act of 2025 has provided this blog with a seemingly ceaseless font of bad news stories. Here’s another one. Currently someone applying for Medicaid can get retroactive coverage for up to three months prior to the date of application as long...

Working It Out: SNAP Eligibility Changes and Maryland’s Response

The current administration’s legislation on changes to work requirements for SNAP recipients are now in force and beneficiaries are feeling the effects. H.R.1’s new rules require non-exempt adults aged between 18 and 64 to show proof of employment, volunteering or job...