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Cleaning Up: Changes to SSI Waivers of Overpayments During Covid

Thanks to the settlement decision of a court case that was resolved in January this year up to two million Supplemental Security Income (SSI) beneficiaries who were recorded as having had overpayments now won’t have to pay the money back. The decision determined that...

Equality Control: Social Security and Section 504

Seventeen years before the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), President Richard Nixon, of all people, signed into law the Rehabilitation Act of 1973. This act was something of a precursor to the ADA but had requirements limited to federal agencies and those who...

A Little Learning: All You Need to Know about Section 301

This week we’re going to hand over the blogging reins to the inestimable Mabel Munoz, Maryland Employment Network’s Lead Benefits Counselor. She recently provided a wonderful factsheet on Section 301 which you can read below in all its pellucid glory. What does...

Beneficiary Beware: Slam the Scam 2024

Yes, it’s that time of year again.  Social Security have been in a constant battle to make everyone aware of the ever-present and ever-real threat of scammers targeting beneficiaries and doing their utmost to part them with their hard-earned cash. Each March the...

Soup’s On: Nutrition Services for Older Marylanders

Thanks to the increasingly mature Older Americans Act (OAA), instituted back in 1965, there have been funds available to every state in the land to provide nutrition services to those approaching the autumn of their lives. In Maryland, as in many states, that means...

SSA Reveals Service Plan during the Federal Government Shutdown

Social Security has issued a statement on its Advocates webpage highlighting the level of its availability during the government shutdown which went into effect today, October 1. Crucially, all SSI and SSDI payments will continue without change and on the same payment...

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...