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Update on Economic Impact Payments

May 14, 2020

The Social Security Administration recently issues some updates on the schedule of the much sought-after Economic Impact Payments that have begun to be issued around the country. These updates concern recipients of Supplemental Security Income (SSI), Social Security...

Maryland Food Stamp Recipients Receiving Increased Allotments

Apr 30, 2020

Maryland Department of Human Services (DHS) has joined other agencies both federal and state in responding positively to the COVID-19 pandemic. In this case it has increased its funding of the officially titled Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), but...

Maryland Unemployment Insurance –

Apr 28, 2020

On April 24th the Maryland Department of Labor launched it's new BEACON one-stop application for Marylanders to file claims for all benefit types including the Pandemic Unemployment Assistance (PUA) program. This enabled those who are self-employed, independent...

CMS Announces Changes to Medicare During COVID-19

Apr 16, 2020

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) has reacted to the COVID-19 pandemic by adapting some of its regulations regarding Medicare services so as to counter a number of the issues that we are all undergoing at the present time. As we are now severely...

Update – Supplemental Security Income Recipients Will Receive Automatic Economic Impact Payments

Apr 16, 2020

Supplemental Security Income Recipients Will Receive Automatic COVID-19 Economic Impact Payments 04/15/2020 04:01 PM EDT Today, we announced that Supplemental Security Income (SSI) recipients will receive automatic Economic Impact Payments directly from the Treasury...

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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...