Disability Issues

The Senate has unanimously approved the Special Needs Trust Fairness Act, a bill that would allow people with disabilities to create their own first-party special needs trusts without having to rely on others.

Senators Bill Cassidy (R-La.) and Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) recently introduced legislation that would fund pilot programs for treating mental illness, encourage collaboration between federal agencies dealing with mental health issues and strengthen enforcement of mental health parity rules. ...

At the same time that Disability.gov is becoming more accessible, the Federal Communications Commission is making communicating with the federal government easier for people who use American Sign Language .  ...

Special Needs Answers member attorney Kimberly Harris has won the State Bar of Georgia’s annual fiction writing contest.

The Special Needs Trust Fairness Act, federal legislation that would allow people with disabilities to create their own special needs trusts instead of having to rely on others, has cleared a key Senate hurdle.  ...

In a 6-3 decision, the U.S. Supreme Court has upheld a key provision of the Affordable Care Act, making it likely that the universal health insurance law passed in 2010 will remain intact for the foreseeable future.

The Social Security Administration (SSA) has temporarily stopped sending repayment notices to some Supplemental Security Income (SSI) beneficiaries after two same-sex married couples filed a lawsuit to prevent the agency from recouping SSI benefits that they were overpaid because the...

After falling short in the previous Congress, Congressmen Glenn 'GT' Thompson (R-Pa) and Frank Pallone, Jr. (D-NJ) recently introduced the Special Needs Trust Fairness Act of 2015, a bill designed to make it easier for people with special needs to...

President Obama's recently-released Fiscal Year 2016 Budget proposes a reallocation of payroll taxes to fix the anticipated shortfall in the Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) trust fund, along with increased employment assistance for people with disabilities and additional funding for...