Pandemic-related financial assistance will no longer affect an individual's eligibility for Supplemental Security Income (SSI) or their benefit amount, the Social Security Administration (SSA) has announced. The assistance includes a long list of pandemic payments, ranging from COVID-19 relief c...
The United States has two federal government benefits programs to help people with disabilities: Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) and Supplemental Security Income (SSI). These have saved countless Americans unable to work for a living from becoming destitute and dying prematurely. But...
Planning for emergencies, whether natural or manmade, is crucial for everyone, not least people with disabilities. Advance preparation can mean the difference between life and death, whether the threat comes from floods, fire, a prolonged power outage, or any number of other perils. Advance plann...
The SECURE Act, passed at the end of 2019, changed a number of rules regarding inherited IRAs, making it more difficult for most beneficiaries to save on taxes by “stretching” distributions over many years. However, an exception to the new rules potentially changes advice that special needs plann...
Families of children with special needs face a daunting challenge when their dependents age out of school. Right now, there is a paucity of state support in America for people whose disabilities mean they are unable to care for themselves, leaving family members, however limited their resources, ...
Hundreds of families from around the U.S. each paid a Virginia non-profit thousands of dollars for service dogs that were not trained at all, and, in some cases were not even delivered, according to two lawsuits, one filed by Virginia's attorney general. The company, called Service Dogs by Warren...
Britney Spears's legal fight to wrest back control over her personal and financial affairs has flooded the issue of guardianship in Klieg lights. While a full guardianship may be necessary for many individuals with special needs, the Spears case underlines the option of more limited alternatives...
The problem with the Supplemental Security Income (SSI) program is the rising number of poor and elderly people and people with disabilities that it doesn't help. First of all, SSI's benefit falls far below today's federal poverty level. (An individual receiving the maximum benefit gets just $794...
The Social Security Administration (SSA), which barred all in-person visits to its 1,200 offices last March in the face of the rising coronavirus pandemic, is now granting a narrow exception. The agency will offer express interviews for eligible people seeking to submit documents for an original ...
In March 2018, the Social Security Administration (SSA) had a nasty surprise for Teresa Sims, a woman with disabilities who lives in a group home in Minnesota's Twin Cities. The agency informed her by letter that she would no longer be receiving the Supplementary Security Income (SSI) checks she...
A recent felony charge against the mother of a special needs child in Minnesota offers a good reason why an independent trustee of a special needs trust, or at least oversight over a family member serving as trustee, may be a good idea. Pamela Fischer, 66, of Rochester, Minnesota, has been char...
About 10 percent of children in foster care are entitled to Social Security payments, either through a physical or mental disability, or because their parents have died — but states are taking the money instead. Even though the payments belong to the children under federal law, at least 36 states...
With Covid-19 proving to be deadlier to people with intellectual and developmental disabilities (I/DD) than just about any other group, it is little wonder that they, their families, and caregivers are eager to sort fact from fiction when it comes to vaccines. A new website — Get Out the Vaccine ...
A San Francisco arbitrator has ordered Uber to pay $1.1 million to a blind woman with a service dog for the rideshare giant's violations of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) through its failure to properly train its drivers. The award, which is believed to be the largest ever in an ADA ca...
Remember how satisfying it was setting up a trust for your child with special needs? You named a trustee and a successor trustee, signed the paperwork, and paid the legal bills, and then you rested easy at night knowing you had put a plan in place for your child. Done! Well, not exactly. Because ...
The Biden administration has announced relief for hundreds of thousands of people with disabilities who had their federal student loan debt reinstated because they failed to submit the proper paperwork during the COVID-19 pandemic. However, advocates are urging the administration make another cha...
The American Rescue Plan, signed into law by President Biden on March 11, 2021, makes health coverage bought through the Affordable Care Act (ACA) vastly more affordable for millions of Americans, at least for two years, and also assists those who need temporary coverage after losing their jobs. ...
To protect and serve is a familiar police department mission statement, but when officers respond to mental crisis calls, too often they end up neither protecting nor serving. Nearly a quarter of those killed in some 6,000 fatal shootings by police since 2015 have been mentally ill, according to ...
A bipartisan bill has been introduced in the House of Representatives that fixes a flaw in earlier legislation and would finally allow all veterans to allocate pension payments to their survivors with special needs without fear that the payments will jeopardize the survivor's receipt of other gov...
Retirement plans often make up a significant portion of the assets of parents of children with special needs, or of individuals who have become disabled as adults. In such cases, the question arises as to whether the retirement plan can be put into a special needs trust. The answer, as with many...
At the start of the Covid-19 pandemic, the Social Security Administration (SSA) closed all 1,200 of its field offices to in-person appointments, as well as suspended numerous other services. One distressing result is that the number of new Supplemental Security Income (SSI) recipients hit its lo...
How do cities stack up for people with disabilities seeking the best place to live? Which provide the most accessible sidewalks, transportation, entertainment, and parks? Which score high for low-cost housing, jobs, public hospitals, affordable home attendants, or a plentiful supply of doctors, t...
In its first three weeks in office, President Biden's administration reversed a range of high-profile Trump Administration regulations that affected people with disabilities — rules covering Medicaid, disability reviews, immigration and housing discrimination. Medicaid work rules: Since 2018, the...
Travel is supposed to let you get away from it all. But it doesn't always feel that way for families traveling with children with special needs. Despite passage of the Americans with Disabilities Act more than 30 years ago, hotels, transportation modes, and destinations can still pose challenges....
When the Social Security Administration (SSA) approves applicants for Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) benefits, it imposes a five-month waiting period between the onset of the applicant's disability and when they can begin receiving benefits. Now, thanks to legislation enacted at the ...
Affiliations
