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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...

SSA Delay Plans on Office Returns

Dec 31, 2021

In a brief note to customers delivered just before Christmas Social Security let it be known that they would not be sending their staff back to offices on January 3, 2022, as had been planned earlier in the month. The original re-entry plan was revealed almost as the...

A Holiday Message from MD Benefits Counseling Network

Dec 23, 2021

It may not exactly feel like the most wonderful time of the year as we deal with another upsurge of the still deadly, and now rather tedious, Covid 19, but here we are. Despite all that we’re dealing with, we at MDBCN would like to wish one and all the very best of...

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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...

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...