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Update on Maryland ABLE!

Nov 20, 2017

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

Nov 13, 2017

#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...

Wage Reporting Options for SSI Recipients

Nov 7, 2017

Reporting wages to Social Security in a timely manner is SO IMPORTANT for recipients of Supplemental Security Income or SSI benefits! Timely reporting is the best way to help prevent frustrating and costly benefit overpayments from occurring. Did you know there are...

2018 COLA Adjustments

Oct 30, 2017

2018 Brings Changes to Benefit and Work Incentive Amounts! The Social Security Administration has announced important cost-of-living adjustments (COLA) for 2018. Social Security and SSI beneficiaries will see a 2.0 percent increase to benefit amounts effective...

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...

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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...