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Plus ça Change…Continuing Medicaid Coverage for CDB Recipients

Feb 25, 2022

There is the common apprehension for Supplemental Security Income (SSI) beneficiaries that the loss of the benefit will lead to the loss of Medical Assistance coverage that, in Maryland amongst the majority of states, comes as part of the package. In many situations...

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...

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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...