To get the $300 Stimulus Check you must file a tax return

Seniors who collect only Social Security can qualify for this one-time check, but even those who would not normally have to file a tax return must file to get the money. SSI benefits do not count toward the $3000 income needed to qualify, but SSI recepients who get that much from another source may qualify. Here are answer to common questions below:

From National Council on Aging;

Call Hilary Dalin at (202) 479-6626 or email at hilary.dalin@ncoa.og for more information

Fact Sheet:

Your Clients Who Are Low-Income Social Security Recipients Must File 2007 Tax Return to Receive Economic Stimulus Check

What is the stimulus package?

To help spur a slowing economy, the IRS will send tax rebate checks to over 130 million households beginning in May 2007 and continuing through the summer. Up to 20 million Americans who rely primarily on Social Security income qualify for a rebate check.

How do people qualify for a stimulus tax rebate check?

Generally a person has to have more than $3,000 in income. Even if a person does not have any earned income they can still qualify for a stimulus tax rebate check if their Social Security benefits, Veteran’s Affairs (VA) benefits, and/or railroad retirement benefits equal at least $3,000 annually.

To qualify, they must file a 2007 tax return on IRS Forms 1040 or 1040A with the IRS (even if their income is normally low enough that they are not required to file).

If they file a tax return, how much are they eligible for?

In most cases, they will get payments ranging from $300 to $600. Payments increase by $300 for families with dependent children under the age of 17, up to a maximum stimulus payment of $1,200.

By what date does the 2007 tax return have to be filed and when will the checks be received?

The IRS encourages filing a return if possible, by the regular April 15 deadline to get the rebate check in May 2008. Those filing later than April 15, with or without a tax-filing extension, may delay receipt of the rebate check. Those who qualify for a stimulus check will receive one by the end of 2008 if they file by October 15, 2008. No rebate checks will be issued after 2008 ends.

Will the stimulus payment affect eligibility for needs-based benefits programs?

Receiving a payment under the stimulus package does not effect eligibility for or amount of needs-based benefits programs (i.e. Food Stamps). Specifically, the payment does not count as income in the month it is received and does not count as a resource (asset) for 60 days after the month in which it was received.

Does your organization have questions about the stimulus package? (Please note: this is not intended for inquiries from consumers; We have provided contact info for consumer referrals below.)

Contact Hilary Dalin at the National Council on Aging at hilary.dalin@ncoa.org.

Do you know a low-to-moderate income senior who needs help filing a tax return?

The Tax Counseling for the Elderly (TCE) Program provides free tax help to people age 60 and older. To find an AARP Tax Aide site call 1-888-227-7669 or visit the AARP Web site.

The Volunteer Income Tax Assistance (VITA) program provides help to low- and moderate-income taxpayers. Call 1-800-906-9887 for assistance.

2008 Federal Poverty Guidelines

2008 Federal Poverty Guidelines for the 48 Contiguous States and the District of Columbia

Family Size	Gross Yearly Income	Gross Monthly Income	Approximate Hourly Income
1	$10,400	$867	$5.00
2	$14,000	$1,167	$6.73
3	$17,600	$1,467	$8.46
4	$21,200	$1,767	$10.19
5	$24,800	$2,067	$11.92
6	$28,400	$2,367	$13.65
7	$32,000	$2,667	$15.38
8	$35,600	$2,967	$17.12
add'l	+$3,600	+$300	+$1.73

Source: Federal Register Vol. 73, No. 15, January 23, 2008, pp. 3971-3972. Monthly and hourly data calculated by Oregon Center for Public Policy and rounded to the nearest dollar and cent, respectively.

WV House of Delegates creates Select Committee on Senior Citizens Issues

A one-year committee was created by resolution of the House of Delegates to have jurisdiction over senior citizen issues. The committee is chaired by District 28 Delegate Thomas W. Campbell (D - Greenbrier). The legislature's webpage for the committee is here, and you can find the list of members there and committee agendas, when they become available.

WV Legislature in session, how to keep up on bills which may affect seniors

Our state unit on aging, the West Virginia Bureau of Senior Services (BoSS), sorts through the every piece of legislation coming out of both House and Senate to identify which bills may impact senior West Virginians. You can read a weekly report from BoSS listing those bills, what they are about, who sponsored them, and where they are in the legislative process by going to this section of their website and clicking on the Weekly Legislative Update. It's a .pdf file that is 15 pages this week.

You can then go see the actual text of any bill that strikes your fancy by going to the WV Legislature's website page called Bill Status. You can search by bill number, words in the text, or even browse lists of bills subject, date, house, etc.

Then of course you can take the opportunity to let your legislators know what you think about the bills they are considering. The legislature's website offers several ways for you to identify your representatives and get their contact info (review names from a list of all members, click where you live on a state map for senate or house, pull down names or district numbers for house or senate, etc.). Any delegate or senator worthy of the office will welcome informed input from a constituent like you.

Longterm Care Planning Toolkit from AoA

Here's a link to a longterm care planning kit I recently discovered from AoA. You have to put your ZIP code first, then click Download, and you get a 27 page .pdf file, only 2 MB, with some questions to ask yourself and resources to consult and steps you can take.

Beware that first and foremost the toolkit pushes longterm care insurance. I don't think LTC insurance is a reasonably affordable option for many senior West Virginians. I also think that many senior West Virginians have a thing for insurance, they really like having it and they tend to trust that it will take care of everything. Whether it will take care of everything really remains to be seen regarding longterm care. The policies are fairly new in this market, and we haven't seen enough people make use of the benefits yet to see whether they really cover what you need and want when you actually get to the point of needing the benefits. It's a much more complicated concept than, say, homeowners insurance or car insurance.

Excellent WV resource database

The Mountain State Center for Independent Living has an extensive resource database (almost 2000 entries) at www.mtstcil.org/resources/search.php. You can inter some search parameters and get lots of results which include a brief line or two about the resource, and snailmail, email, phone, and fax contact info.

2008 State Legislature Calendar and Info online

The 2008 WV Legislative calendar is available online now at the legislature's website. The information packet detailing the members and committees, as well as a variety of state agency information, is also available as a 32 page .pdf here.

Legislative Audit Report Released on A/D Waiver

In 2006 it got harder to be be determined medically eligible for the Aged and Disabled Medicaid Waiver program in West Virginia. Increasing numbers of new applicants were being denied eligibility, and increasing numbers of beneficiaries of the program were being thrown off or getting levels of care reduced because they were failing their redeterminations under the PAS 2005. Some of the beneficiaries had been on the program for many years. Concerned citizens organized, the media took notice, a class action lawsuit was filed (Fleshman v. Walker), and the West Virginia legislature asked for an audit of the situation.

Finally on Monday, January 7, 2008 the auditor's report was published. You can find the complete report here on the legislature's website. It's a 28 page .pdf file. Here also is a brief article in the Gazette about the report.

Most advocates believed that the changes were intended to save the state money by reducing the number of people the program served and the levels of services they received. This report supports that conclusion.

Postcard from WVSOS: What If I Threw It Away?

Here is some additional information about the WVSOS registered voter postcard many seniors have received. As more information becomes available, we will continue to post it here. (See this post http://seniorlegalaid.blogspot.com/2007/10/wv-elder-alert-postcard-from-wvsos.html for basic information about these postcards.)

What if I threw the postcard away? According to the WVSOS election division, you have a couple of options. One, you may just go in person to your local County Clerk's office to give the information requested on the postcard. Or if you prefer you may contact WVSOS at (866) 767-8683 to ask for another postcard to be sent to you.

What if I just ignore this and never respond? According to WVSOS any recipients of the postcards who never respond will be noted in their voter registration database as INACTIVE. This DOES NOT mean you cannot vote, but rather that the next time you go to the polls to vote, you will be required to produce some kind of identification with a unique number.

WV Elder Alert: Postcard from WVSOS

193,000 West Virginians, many older adults, have received or will receive a postcard in the mail from the WV Secretary of State's (WVSOS) office requesting some personal information.
This is not a scam, I have verified with the WVSOS elections division that this request is indeed from them. They explained that federal law (the Help America Vote Act of 2002) requires them to keep a statewide voter registration database, and that not all county voting records included the unique identifying information (either Drivers License number or the last 4 digits of your Social Security number) required for the state to comply with federal law.

Many smart seniors will be wary of putting any identifying information onto a postcard, since any person who sees the postcard could potentially use the information for identity theft. I have discussed this concern with the folks at the WVSOS, and they suggested that anyone returning the completed card either:

- Don't tear the card off. After filling in the requested information fold the perforated edge the opposite way, so that the SSN or DL information are covered, then tape around the edges and mail it, or
- put the completed card in an envelope and address it and add your own stamp for postage

If you receive the card you don't have either a SSN or a Drivers License, you can use another kind of unique identifying number, such as the one on a non-drivers ID from the DMV. If you have no unique identifying number, you should contact your local County Clerk. You can get contact information for each County Clerk at the WVSOS website here www.wvsos.com/service/rosters/countyclerks.htm

For more information about this process please see the WVSOS press release:
www.wvsos.com/pressoffice/09-27-07PressReleaseVoterDataMatch.pdf If you have questions you may contact the WVSOS toll-free at (866) SOS-VOTE or (866) 767-8683. For some summary information about the Help America Vote Act at www.usdoj.gov/opa/pr/2003/December/03_crt_728.htm And for the text of the entire Act see www.usdoj.gov/crt/voting/hava/HAVA_2002.html

Any senior West Virginian age 60 or over who does not have a unique identifying number and who has trouble related to verifying his or her voter registration record may contact West Virginia Senior Legal Aid for assistance at 1-800-229-5068.

Case of the Week 5/25/07

Client's Age: 64
County: Putnam

Client's daughter has Medical Power of Attorney (MPOA), and has recently been exploiting client and treating her unkindly. Client wanted someone else to have MPOA, so we explained how to revoke her old one, sent her a blank form to fill out, and instructed her to give copies of the new document to all her medical providers as well as her new agent.

Case of the Week 5/4/07

Client's age: 81
County: Ohio

Client recently bought home for herself and blind son with his wife to live in, but now deeply regretted it. Client quickly had to move because of pet allergies, and son and wife could not afford the home, so foreclosure was imminent. We examined client's financial circumstances, explained that she was otherwise collection proof, and could live in accessible senior housing with her income and few personal assets protected from this debt.

Case of the Week 4/27/07

Client's Age: 67
County: Mason

Client's husband passed away several months ago, and her household income plummeted. Her monthly mortgage payment is more than her entire monthly income, but she has been making the payment with the life insurance benefit. The insurance has run out and she wanted to know what to do. We examined her finances, including her assets, debts, income, expenses, and explained that she could not afford to live in that house anymore since her mortgage balance was substantially higher than the home's fair market value and couldn't be effectively refinanced. We helped her get connected with affordable housing options and explained the foreclosure process.

Case of the Week 4/20/07

Client's Age: 82
County: Pocahontas

Client is a nursing home resident whose physician has determined he lacks the capacity to make his own healthcare decisions. His estranged wife has Medical Power of Attorney for him, he is considering divorce, and he doesn't want her to have that authority anymore. We explained to C that divorce would automatically legally revoke her authority for him under the MPOA, and in the mean time if his physician determines that he has the capacity to at least choose his medical decisionmaker, he could revoke the MPOA and execute a new one. Or if the physician determined the estranged wife were incapable of properly acting as his MPOA representative, he could appoint a healthcare surrogate for client.

Change in the NH Medicaid penalty for uncompensated transfers of assets

The monthly private-pay nursing home care rate is part of what DHHR uses to determine how long your penalty will be for certain uncompensated transfers of assets if you apply for nursing home Medicaid. That figure has been increased to $5,087 as of March 1, 2007 www.wvdhhr.org/bcf/policy/imm/IMManualChanges/451/ch17_10.pdf

For several years (approximately 8?) the figure has been the very low $3,380. This is an improvement for long-term Medicaid beneficiaries and their families because it will reduce the length of penalties for the kinds of uncompensated asset transfers (a legal term for something most people would call gifts) that get penalized. For example, if you gave your granddaughter $7,000 to help her pay her college tuition, and needed Medicaid to pay for your nursing home care within 3 years (soon to be 5 years, more on this later), that could have gotten you a 2 month penalty using the old rate. It could only get you a 1 month penalty under the new rule, as DHHR divides the value of the gift by this new monthly private-pay nursing home rate.

But WV still has not promulgated regulations to implement the federal Medicaid changes under the Deficit Reduction Act 2005 (DRA). Those changes, whenever they are made, will likely make the penalties even harsher again, as they eliminate the practice of rounding down to the nearest whole number of months, lengthen the look-back period for penalizing transfers from 3 years to 5 years, and begin the penalties from the time you are in the NH and need the benefits rather than from the time of the transfer.

Case of the Week 4/13/07

Client's Age: 63
County: Putnam

Client had a fairly unusual circumstance, of having her home deeded in both her and her ex-husband's name, though they had been divorced for over 25 years. Now ex-husband may need nursing home Medicaid benefits, and client was worried about the state taking the home because his name was still on it. We examined her circumstances and explained that if the deed were joint/survivor and he died first, Medicaid estate recovery would not attach because the home would not pass through ex-husband's probate estate. But if client died first, ex-husband would become sole owner and Medicaid estate recovery could attach. "Thank you so much, I wish I'd known about you years ago, I've gotten more from you today than 8 yrs of asking."

Case of the Week 4/6/07

Client's Age: 65
County: Taylor

Client and her now-deceased husband had put their home in their daughter's name to protect it for client from her husband's son from a former marriage. Now she is having disputes with her daughter and wants to put the house back in her own name. We explained that once the deed was made to the daughter, the property became daughter's (subject to the life estate client retained). Client cannot force daughter to give it back, though we explained client has the exclusive right of possession of the property during her lifetime.

Case of the Week 3/30/07

Client's Age: 75
County: Lincoln

Client lives alone with her two cats, and the cats both seemed sick. She heard about the recent large-scale cat food recall for food contaminants that were life-threatening for the animals. Once we determined which brands and types of cat food she had given them, we reviewed the recall website and determined that none of the foods her cats ate were on the long recall list. She was relieved.

Case of the Week 3/23/07

Client's Age: 69
County: Clay

Client, a widow who recently moved from another state to WV to be near his son, has been diagnosed with early Alzheimers. He called us with a variety of legal questions as he is trying to get his affairs in order as he anticipates his future mental incapacity. He had been told to transfer his assets to his son to qualify for long-term care Medicaid. That is a popular legal myth that actually can cause you significant harm because of the penalties for uncompensated transfers of assets. We explained in detail long-term care Medicaid eligibility, spend-down, uncompensated transfers of assets impacts, and estate recovery, and applied those concepts to his particular circumstances so he can plan effectively.

Case of the Week 3/16/07

Client's Age: 69
County: Ohio

Client has 4 credit card debts with which she has been struggling to keep up payments, plus medical debt, she's in arrears with her utilities, and has a mortgage and car payment. After carefully reviewing her assets, income sources, debt, and expenses, we explained that she is largely collection-proof, except for a small private pension that is a relatively small portion of her monthly income. We helped her understand the different legal rights she has related to the different kinds of debts and bills she has, and helped her understand that her mortgage and utilities should always be a priority over her unsecured debt. We also explained how to write cease letters to her creditors, and encouraged her to call back if she ever got sued or reached a point where her mortgage and living expenses (excluding payments toward unsecured debt) became unaffordable.