VA Press Release – Expansion of Educational Benefits and the Role of the VA in 20th Century History
On October 20, 2014, the Department of Veterans Affairs issued the following VA Press Release explaining the expansion of Post-9/11 GI Bill benefits to surviving spouses of servicemembers killed while on active duty. This announcement is implementation of one of the statutory provisions of the recent Veterans Access, Choice, and Accountability Act of 2014 (“Choice Act”).
It also gives me an...
There’s help available for elderly victims of Domestic Violence
Today is “Purple Thursday” within Domestic Violence Awareness month. It’s been about 40 years since the taboo subject of conjugal crime and battering were brought out of the shadows and onto the table for public discussion. A small group of women (including myself) worked in a small network of shelters around the state and did our best to assist victims to get protective...
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On October 20, 2014, the Court of Appeals for Veterans Claims (CAVC) issued a single-judge unpublished memorandum opinion in Heredia v. McDonald. The opinion is not precedential and presents no point of law that is unresolved, however, it will hopefully give insight in the future for filing a VA survivor benefits claim.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...