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Work Incentives – Subsidies and Special Conditions

If you're familiar with how employment impacts Title II benefits like SSDI, then you are already aware that following the end of the Trial Work Period, Social Security will make a determination about whether an individual is performing Substantial Gainful Activity or...

Work Incentives – Impairment Related Work Expenses (IRWE)

Social Security has special rules called work incentives that support employment efforts and serve as an extra 'incentive' for SSI and SSDI beneficiaries to work. One of these work incentives is called an Impairment Related Work Expense, more commonly known by it's...

SSA’s Promoting Opportunities Demonstration (POD) – Have You Heard?

The Social Security Administration launched a new demonstration project known as the Promoting Opportunities Demonstration or POD with beneficiary enrollments beginning November, 2017. SSA will be implementing POD in select counties throughout the state of Maryland;...

Update on Maryland ABLE!

Just last week the Maryland Benefits Counseling Network posted information about the Achieving Better Life Experience or ABLE program - what it is, how it can help eligible individuals save money without impacting Medicaid and/or SSI benefits, and how to participate...

Social Security Resource Limit – Get Around It If You’re ABLE

#ABLEtoSave If you receive Supplemental Security Income (SSI) benefits you are hopefully already aware that Social Security limits the amount of resources you can have in order to remain eligible for SSI benefits - $2,000 for an individual or $3,000 for an eligible...

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...

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...