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Work Break: Update on The Earned Income Tax Credit

Apr 1, 2022

Tax deadline day is fast approaching so it would certainly seem to be an appropriate time to highlight a little tax break that’s out there for those of us who are working and have ‘low to moderate’ income, in the parlance of the IRS. The Earned Income Tax Credit...

Affordable Connectivity Program: Helping Households with Broadband Costs

Mar 25, 2022

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has recently introduced the Affordable Connectivity Program (ACP) which is expected to be a long-term replacement to the Emergent Broadband Benefit (EBB) that came into being during the pandemic. The purpose of the ACP is to...

Social Security Return to Office Update

Mar 18, 2022

The Social Security Administration have made it be known that they plan to open offices up to the public starting in April. They have admitted that they haven’t yet set an exact date for the grand re-opening so it would appear that those plans are far from fully...

March On: Social Security Recognizing Women’s History Month

Mar 11, 2022

Since 1995 March has been designated as Women’s History Month in the United States. Each year at this time we can recognize and celebrate all the achievements that women have made since the very beginnings of the creation of this country. Indeed, today, March 11, if...

Watch Out! Slam the Scam Day Is Just Around the Corner

Mar 4, 2022

In what has become an annual event, Social Security has instituted a Slam the Scam Day to bring awareness to the public of the insidious practice of scamming. This illegal activity involves individuals pretending to be from the SSA contacting beneficiaries and...

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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...