Category: education news

Dr. Barbara J. White, ’76, and Dr. Bruce A. White have endowed a scholarship fund in their names to support students in the Gallaudet University Social Work program. This scholarship will be offered for the first time during the 2024-2025 academic year. 

In announcing the fund, Dr. Barbara White wrote, “My husband Bruce and I are pleased to establish this endowed scholarship fund for MSW students. As an undergraduate student when the social work program was first established in the 1970s, and later as a faculty member in the Social Work department when the MSW program was established in the late 1980s, it has been gratifying to witness the tremendous growth of the field of social work with deaf and hard of hearing people. We hope the fund will help increase the number of professional MSW level social workers who are deaf, deafblind, or hard of hearing to meet the growing demand for social workers with the knowledge and skills in working with the Deaf population at all system levels.” 

Read the rest at https://gallaudet.edu/social-work/master-of-social-work-msw/retired-faculty-members-establish-scholarship-fund-for-msw-students/?utm_campaign=Hi5&utm_medium=email&_hsmi=286685694&_hsenc=p2ANqtz-_bqZwQTGI4sYeH-bdvsZ6UqpEwqccuKo-7Ne0uMavmQkZe2q2sAw-gBpM2WjrOX4AjLb_fzrM_QLoCdZA_WsbigP9Jdg&utm_content=286685694&utm_source=hs_email

* DAD Note: Barbara and Bruce live in Delaware, so if you see them – thank them!

 

The Social Security Administration uses a different standard to determine Supplemental Security Income benefits for people living in certain states. Now, the agency wants to update its rules to treat beneficiaries nationwide more equitably.

The agency is proposing a new rule to modify how it alters benefit payments for those who receive what’s known as “in-kind support and maintenance” in the form of a rental subsidy.

Under current rules, SSI benefits are reduced if a person is paying rent or shelter expenses that are lower than the current market value, or what they would pay on the open market. This is significant in cases where a person with a disability is renting from a family member, for example, who charges them a reduced rate.

But, due to court rulings, the agency uses a less stringent standard in seven states — Connecticut, New York, Vermont, Illinois, Indiana, Wisconsin and Texas. In these states, benefits are not reduced if a person is spending more than a third of their income on housing even if their rent is less than the current market value.

The proposed rule published this month in the Federal Register seeks to expand the more lenient standard already in place in seven states to the entire country.

Read on at https://www.disabilityscoop.com/2023/08/29/social-security-proposes-update-to-ssi-calculation/30520/?fbclid=IwAR217SfpXpAsDLOBCIuDhOtrLbmvV7EEBwWAT8X0X3siTNqjAxj-qpSo9jM

Federal Register link if you would like to make a comment or read the details, see https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2023/08/24/2023-18213/expansion-of-the-rental-subsidy-policy-for-supplemental-security-income-ssi-applicants-and#open-comment