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Need Help with Tax Prep? Find the Answers Here

Feb 18, 2022

We're closing in on tax season once more and that can pose quite a number of questions and concerns for all of us. We at MDBCN are not tax professionals but we can point you in the right direction. We've tracked down a very helpful site that will give you the contact...

The Pickle Amendment: Keeping Medicaid When COLAs Make You Ineligible for SSI

Feb 11, 2022

Jake Pickle was a US Representative of the 10th District of Texas between 1963 and his retirement in 1995. A Democrat, he voted in favor of the Civil Rights Acts of 1964, ’65 and ’68. In 1983 he worked on increasing the full retirement age for Social Security, a...

Dear Reader, What Would You Like to Discuss in ‘22?

Feb 4, 2022

The new year’s updates have all been completed and we’re settling into another year. We’ve had the good news about the Social Security COLAs and the bad news about the Medicare Part B premiums; the Federal Poverty Level is up again, and Social Security said they were...

Update on SNAP Maximum Allotments

Jan 28, 2022

The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), still more commonly known as food stamps, has an annual maximum allotment depending on the size of the household. The figures for 2022 came into place back in October 2021 as the US Department of Agriculture works...

2022 Federal Poverty Levels Released

Jan 20, 2022

The new year brings with it an expected change in the US Federal Poverty Guidelines, and as would also be expected, they are a little higher than before. The guidelines are used to determine the financial eligibility for state and federal programs, and so play a huge...

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Forking Out: SNAP Updates and Maryland’s Response

It is now widely known that it is forty-two million Americans who receive SNAP benefits, still also known as food stamps. They remain at the mercy of a government, which has remained shut down for thirty-seven days at the time of writing, and shows no sign of opening...

SSA Announces 2026 COLAs

2026’s Cost of Living Adjustment (COLA) was recently published and there are some limited but welcome increases across the board. Benefits are due to go up 2.8%. In terms of how that looks to SSI recipients, it means that the Federal Benefit Rate (FBR) will rise to...

SSA Reveals Service Plan during the Federal Government Shutdown

Social Security has issued a statement on its Advocates webpage highlighting the level of its availability during the government shutdown which went into effect today, October 1. Crucially, all SSI and SSDI payments will continue without change and on the same payment...

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...