Special Needs Trusts have to be Sole Benefit Trusts
If a person is disabled and cannot support themselves, they may need the support of government benefits over the long term to help with costs of housing, health insurance, transportation, residential services, and home health aides. If they then receive assets through a personal injury settlement, the impact of the settlement on their eligibility for benefits must be taken into account....
Effective Date of Entitlement for DIC Benefits . . . Please File Within One Year of Death
On October 20, 2014, the Court of Appeals for Veterans Claims (CAVC) issued a single-judge unpublished memorandum opinion in Heredia v. McDonald. The opinion is not precedential and presents no point of law that is unresolved, however, it will hopefully give insight in the future for filing a VA survivor benefits claim. In essence, the surviving spouse, Mrs. Natalia Heredia, of Marine...
Appeal of a Medicaid Denial Must be Filed within 20 days of Notice
When an application for Medicaid benefits is filed with a County Board of Social Services in New Jersey, it may be many months before the applicant hears back from the caseworker who is processing the application. If the applicant is in a nursing home or is suffering with Alzheimers Disease or other dementias it is crucial that they have a representative such as a family member, agent under...
Supported Decision-Making as an Alternative to Guardianship
Back on May 29-30 I participated in the 3rd World Congress on Adult Guardianship in Arlington VA and followed up with blog posts about alternative approaches to guardianship around the world. Supported Decision-Making is a concept that is gaining traction in many places and certainly deserves careful consideration here in New Jersey. It’s more complicated than merely entering an...
NJ Medicaid MLTSS Feedback Forums scheduled in October
You know by now that the New Jersey Department of Human Services has been developing a new Medicaid Long Term Services and Supports (MLTSS) program under its 2013 Comprehensive Medicaid Waiver. It’s still a work-in-progress. This program affects all elderly and disabled Medicaid applicants and Medicaid recipients who need long-term care Medicaid services outside of nursing homes. Three...
CAVC Troubled By One ROs Lack of Responsiveness . . . But One RO Has Shed Light Through the Fog of Recent
On October 7, 2014, the Court of Appeals for Veterans Claim (CAVC) published a decision in Roberts v. McDonald (regarding how the offset should occur for surviving spouses both entitled to annuity benefits under the Survival Benefits Plan and VA benefits pursuant to dependency and indemnity compensation (DIC)), and a number of unpublished decisions. While unpublished decisions have no legal...
NJ Medicaid issues Guidance on new Qualified Income Trusts
I previously posted about the upcoming changes to the New Jersey Medicaid programs that pay for nursing home care and home and community-based services (HCBS) for people whose gross monthly income exceeds $2,163. This amount was formerly called the “income cap,” and people in that group could only receive Medicaid benefits in nursing homes. That was under the “Medically...
NJ’s SACCONE case allows use of Special Needs Trusts for PFRS Beneficiary
The New Jersey Supreme Court has issued a decision that will be very helpful to disabled children of retired NJ police and firefighters, called Saccone v Board of Trustees of the Police and Firemen’s Retirement System (9/11/2014), http://caselaw.findlaw.com/nj-supreme-court/1677772.html Under the rules for the Police and Firemen’s Retirement System (PFRS), upon the death of a...
Coordinating Home Care for the Frail Aged takes Persistence
It is axiomatic that aged individuals would prefer to remain in the comfort of their familiar surroundings rather than finish their lives in an institutional setting. This is the case whether the person lives in a mansion or a little apartment, in a house with their beloved front porch or a home with their comforting tiny living room or sunny little back yard. Federal initiatives exist that...
RSVP Senior Volunteer Program is up and running again in Essex and Hudson Counties
The Retired Senior Volunteer Program (RSVP) was started in the 1970’s as a program of the federal government that was administered by local non-profit organizations all over the USA to provide a way for retired people to continue to use their vast knowledge and skills to benefit others. In fact both my grandfather and my uncle — retired printers from Barton Press Inc. of Newark and...