From the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette:

Giving gifts to a people with developmental disabilities, like Sarah Michael (left, with her family), during the holiday season can put their government benefits in jeopardy if not done properly.

If the gifts or benefits exceed $2,000 in total assets, the government can freeze critical benefits such as Medicaid, Medicare, Supplemental Security income or Social Security income.

“We see a lot of holiday celebrations, birthdays, communions and bar mitzvahs where people make several small monetary donations to special needs children, and if those compile over $2,000, their benefits are in jeopardy,” said Helen Sims, a special care planner with the Downtown financial planning group Guyaux Mandler Mah, which is affiliated with MassMutual Group.

… Families with disabled children can provide more security for them without disqualifying the child from government benefits by creating a special needs trust.

(Post-Gazette photo)

From the New York Times:

Forty years after Agent Orange was last used in Vietnam, the federal government has plans to make it easier for former veterans to get disability payments and health care for illnesses they say were caused by exposure to the toxic defoliant.

The shift underscores efforts by the secretary of veterans affairs, Eric Shinseki, a retired Army chief of staff and a Vietnam veteran himself, to reduce obstacles to sick or disabled veterans’ receiving benefits. The department has come under sharp criticism from Congress and veterans groups for long delays in processing disability claims.

“Since my confirmation as secretary, I’ve often asked why, 40 years after Agent Orange was last used in Vietnam, we’re still trying to determine the health consequences to our veterans who served in the combat theater,” Mr. Shinseki said in a statement. “Veterans who endure a host of health problems deserve timely decisions.”

It’s estimated that the policy change could prompt claims from 200,000 veterans.

From the AP/San Francisco Examiner:

An audit by the Veterans Affairs Department’s inspector general has concluded that too many veterans are waiting more than a year to get their disability claims processed.

The audit found that 11,000 veterans had been waiting more than a year as of one year ago, and that about $14 million of $43 million in retroactive payments had been unnecessarily delayed because of inadequate claims processing.

The report said the VA has hired more claims processors, but delays still create significant burdens for veterans.

From the Seattle Times and the Associated Press/Olympian:

A federal judge has ordered the state of Washington to restore services to some 950 seniors and people with disabilities who lost their benefits without notice on July 1.

A lawsuit was filed contesting the state’s decision to relieve budget pressure by cutting social and medical therapy to vulnerable adults living at home or in community residential services.

Judge Richard A. Jones issued a temporary injunction, saying the state violated  due process rights.  The ruling says the Department of Social and Health Services must reinstate benefits until the department is able to make meaningful reassessments of individual needs, issue timely notices of a reduction or termination in services, and give information about alternative services.

Earlier posts here and here.

UK Conservative leader David Cameron writes in the [UK] Independent about his plan for ending the red tape nightmare faced by the families of children with disabilities. He draws on what he learned from his family’s experience with his six-year-old son, Ivan, who died last February. Ivan had cerebral palsy and epilepsy.

Life for the parents of such young people is already “complicated enough without having to jump through hundreds of government hoops”, Cameron said.

He called for a streamlined system that would give parents more control over their child’s care, and improve access to education, respite, early intervention and health care. He also argued against what he called “the gospel of inclusion,” and pledged to give parents more educational choice by halting the closure of special schools.

Cameron will deliver a keynote speech on the subject at the Research Autism conference in London today.

An excerpt:

“Having your child assessed and getting the help you’re entitled to means answering the same questions over and over again, being buried under snow drifts of forms, spending hours on hold in the phone queue.

“I am determined to make life simpler for parents.”

Readers, what’s your take? Would David Cameron’s critique also hold true in the U.S.?

See related stories:

David Cameron urges end to ‘bureaucratic pain’ for parents of disabled children—Guardian

David Cameron calls to end ‘bureaucratic pain’ for families of disabled children — Telegraph

Tories to cut disability red tape—BBC News

Tories ‘will cut bureaucracy for carers’—Independent

Leading article: Compassionate Conservatism—Independent

Earlier posts here.

(Photo from UK Independent)

From the New York Times:

A growing backlog of disability claims is leaving veterans waiting months or longer for their government benefits. Damian J. Todd (left), 33, who was diagnosed with post-traumatic distress disorder after serving two tours in Iraq, waited nearly 18 months to receive approval after filing a claim.

The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) acknowledges that it has a major problem, with a backlog of unprocessed disability claims that is now over 400,000, up from 253,000 six years ago. Veterans advocates say the actual backlog is closer to one million.

“There are some positive signs in terms of what we’re doing,” said Michael Walcoff, deputy under secretary for benefits in the Veterans Benefits Administration. “But we know that veterans deserve better.”

Earlier posts here.

(New York Times photo by Sara Krulwich)

George Skelton, longtime Sacramento correspondent for the Los Angeles Times, says people with disabilities are an “easy target” as California officials propose painful budget cuts.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger expects to save $402 million during the next fiscal year by cutting state supplemental income payments; $124 million by reducing caregivers’ wages; and $385 million by disqualifying the majority of current IHSS [In-Home Supportive Services] recipients.

Marta Russell, an Encino-based freelance journalist with cerebral palsy and fibromyalgia, tells Skelton the expected cuts will devastate people like her who are not poor enough to receive SSI benefits but not able enough to manage on their own. She needs the benefits, she says, in order to stay out of an institution.

[Russell said,] “I expect suicides, premature deaths, a horrible disruption of the social fabric … We’re headed toward market-based social Darwinism where only the fittest will survive.”

Skelton says “the aged, blind and disabled will take the Schwarzenegger hit,” and they have good reason to be frightened.

See also:

State’s in-home, day caregivers fear budget ax — San Francisco Chronicle

Day programs for seniors and Alzheimer’s patients may be eliminated — Contra Costa Times