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NEW – Online Wage Reporting for SSDI Beneficiaries!

Oct 23, 2017

On September 23rd, 2017 the Social Security Administration announced a new option to report wages for Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) beneficiaries. To date, individuals who receive SSDI benefits and their Representative Payees could only report wages by...

Pay Your Medicare Premiums Online!

Aug 23, 2017

Most individuals who receive a cash benefit from Social Security and have Medicare are able to have Medicare premiums automatically deducted from their monthly benefit. However, for those who no longer receive a cash benefit, making Medicare premium payments just got...

Job Vacancy Announcement – Benefits Case Manager

Aug 4, 2017

Job Vacancy Announcement - Benefits Case Manager The Maryland Benefits Counseling Network is excited to announce that recruitment for a full-time contractual Benefits Case Manager position has begun! Please see the detailed position announcement below. Interested...

Social Security Administration 2017 Red Book

May 31, 2017

The Social Security Administration's Red Book is now available for 2017!The Red Book (SSA Publication No. 64-030) serves as a general guide to Social Security work incentives and employment supports of Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) and Supplemental...

Maryland’s 2017 1619(b) Threshold decreases from 2016.

Feb 19, 2017

This is the second year in a row the 1619(b) threshold has fallen for Maryland residents. The 2017 1619(b) threshold is $40,005 per year. See the following Social Security Policy link for more information. https://secure.ssa.gov/apps10/poms.nsf/lnx/0502302200

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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...

Salt in the Wound: OBBBA and Cuts to Medicaid for Non- Citizens

Further to our recent blog on the One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA) and its plan to cut Medicaid funding, here’s some more bad news brought to you by your government. This time the target is Non-Citizens. At present there are some severe limitations to eligibility...

Stopped Check: SSA to Eliminate Paper Payments to Beneficiaries

These days if you are to order a new batch of checks you are given a choice of designs for the background and can even select a personal message line. You may notice, however, that the choices appear to skew towards appealing to an older demographic. One recent option...

Uncivil Service: OBBBA and Medicaid Work Requirements

The One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA) that was recently signed into law by the current incumbent in the White House has within its hundreds of provisions a number of cuts to Medicaid funding under the pretext that there’s vast and widespread fraud and cheating going...