A nursing home closure can be traumatic for residents who are forced to move. While there may not be much that can be done to prevent a closure, residents do have some rights. Moving into a nursing home can be a stressful experience on its own. If that nursing home closes, residents can experience symptoms…
Medicare is supposed to provide up to 35 hours a week of home care to those who qualify, but many Medicare patients with chronic conditions are being wrongly denied such care, according to Kaiser Health News. For a variety of reasons, many home health care agencies are simply telling patients they are not covered. Medicare…
Among its many other provisions, the newly enacted Tax Cuts and Jobs Act offers significant tax savings for people forced to default on their student loan debt due to a disability. Generally, it is almost impossible to have student loan debt forgiven. It is not even dischargeable in bankruptcy. In fact, the Higher Education Act provides for just two…
Although Supplemental Security Income (SSI) recipients are subject to rigid asset limits, the federal government has provided a few avenues for beneficiaries to earn income that supplements their SSI benefit. The Social Security Act imposes a $2,000 asset limit on SSI beneficiaries, a figure that has remained frozen since 1989. For couples, the limit is $3,000. For…
Most special needs trusts give their trustee wide authority, often appropriately so, to respond to unforeseen circumstances. But for those concerned about placing some checks and balances on the trustee’s authority, one possible option is a care committee. Special needs trusts are trusts designed to protect the assets of a person with disabilities. The trustee is…
In guidance released to state Medicaid agencies, the Trump administration announced January 11 that it would allow states to experiment with creating work requirements for certain recipients of federal Medicaid benefits. In states adopting the guidance, some Medicaid recipients would be required to work in order to stay eligible for benefits. The 10-page guidance document specifies that the work…
Some people become disabled as the result of a work-related illness or injury. In these cases, the individual may be eligible for both Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) and workers’ compensation benefits. Unfortunately, their total benefits may be limited by what is known as the “workers’ compensation offset.” Key to understanding the interplay between the two programs…
The lawyer who built the third-largest disability benefits practice in the United States from offices in a tiny eastern Kentucky town was captured on December 2, 2017, leaving a Pizza Hut restaurant in La Ceiba, Honduras. Eric Conn, who called himself “Mr. Social Security,” disappeared on June 2, 2017, after pleading guilty in March to…
Families taking advantage of ABLE savings accounts will have a little more flexibility in planning for special needs as a result of the new Tax Cuts and Jobs Act signed into law by President Trump on December 22, 2017. As we previously discussed, ABLE accounts, created by Congress via the passage of the Achieving a Better…
After staying the same for five years, the amount you can give away to any one individual in a particular year without reporting the gift will increase in 2018. The annual gift tax exclusion for 2018 is rising from $14,000 to $15,000. This means that any person who gives away $15,000 or less to any one individual…
