>> Sounds great, and so Ray, I think you can get us started. And before we get started, let me just give, let me just give Ray so much kudos. When the stimulus CARES Act came out, Ray basically spent a sleepless night getting everything organized. He, he had hundreds of pages on his desk, was reviewing everything and the next day, without any sleep, he worked all day to put together this wonderful document that I then just basically prettied up and doctored, and it's because he'd done such a great job. So Ray, take it away, buddy.

>> Okay, thank you and welcome everybody. We've got a ton of stuff to cover today. And as Ed said, we've been working on the fact sheet that you've probably seen a hundred times already. I jokingly say it's iteration 5,492. But what we can tell you right now is that we believe the federal statutory issues are stable. Can't promise you, but right now they appear to be stable. So we have begun updating that fact sheet once a week, and it will be hopefully done, I'll keep working on it as soon as I get off of this webinar, to try to tweak and give you more details. There are some minimal changes again that we get, we're going to give you the federal niceties of just like we did in class. You will have to always check your state unemployment, your state SNAP programs to make sure this information applies to your state in the way we're saying the federal application calls for. So, why don't we just get started and see where we're going. And Ed, you're going to, I don't even have your schedule. I know you divided this up for us so you're going to tell me to shut up at some point.

>> Sure. So you're going to take all these through number, just so you know Ray-

>> Okay.

>> You're going to take it through number slide 8 and then I'm going to take over and then I'm going to hand it back around slide 28.

>> Perfect. Then we're all set. That's all I need to know. Okay. COVID, the CARES Act and other federal legislation. While we were all busy doing our jobs back in March, the federal government passed a couple of pieces of legislation. The Family First CARES Act, and I can't even remember what the second one was, the Coronavirus Preparedness and Response Supplemental Appropriation. So there were a couple of pieces of legislation that happened while we weren't even looking, because I don't think we were perfectly aware of what was about to happen to all of us. And it was when the CARES Act passed that everything seemed to go into crisis. You know, that was when shutdowns were beginning, that was when Cornell was being evacuated, Social Security offices were being evacuated, restaurants were shutting down. So it was time to do something other than wear a mask and gloves. And this is what we were able to do. And there are your presenters, and of course Cooper, you know, today I'm here with all three of them. Squirrels happen, you've heard it before. If you hear a bark, ignore it. So where are we today?

>> I want you to know Ray, that the Adobe Connect is working really slowly so that even though you've moved us ahead, it's, it's about 30 to 40 seconds behind you.

>> Oh, okay. Do you see ball of confusion?

>> No. All we see, we just got to today's presenters about 10 seconds ago. So I just want to, now we see ball of confusion, okay?

>> Cooper was such a, Cooper's been our mascot for a long time. He's 11 years old now. Okay, ball of confusion for those of you who recognize that phrase and they're humming the song now. That's where we are. With the confusion is leveling off if I can use a catch phrase today, we have flattened the curve on our confusion. COVID-19 has clearly changed our world and most certainly our country, particularly for the folks that we work with. For how long? I don't know. We're going to give you what the dates are for the different provisions, but we can fully expect that if this goes on, things will be extended. You know, so right now we do know how the CARES Act is going to function, along with some of those earlier state statutes. We are seeing things roll out. So that's what you're going to see tomorrow or Monday when the new fact sheet comes out, some additional information on what we've already put in there as to the experience people are having with the stimulus checks, with applying for unemployment. So we are a little less confused than we were. That doesn't mean this is all clear and will not change. This is an enormous piece of legislation. You know, as Ed said and, you know, Ed knows I like paper. It's 888 pages worth of legislation, you know? And I felt guilty about using that much paper so I actually did work on my screen with this which will, you know, make Ed proud of me. But what we saw was complete shutdown of everything - schools, small businesses, even the federal agencies that are working now, particularly Social Security, you know, shut down. Their workers are at home. The agency is still functioning but with essential work and non-essential work. And it's the non-essential work that still concerns me. We know 21 million people, that's what the total was last night on the news, have been laid off. You know? You can bet that most of those people that we've put back to work we're among those people laid off, because you tend, it tends to be the newer people that get laid off first. You know, and in some cases they may have been furloughed. We still have a question as to what that means. My assumption, and this is my assumption, is that if you are laid off, you have separated from your employer and when that employer opens up, you may have to go through a hiring process again whereas furlough tends to mean to me that when the employer opens again, you'll be called back. Now, with some of the small restaurants, you know they're going to be calling the same servers back because they were doing a good job. But remember, layoffs and furloughs are two different things. So today what we're going to focus on are our folks, the workers with disabilities, what they're going to get and what we think they can do. Because in the spite, in, in the face of all of this madness and sadness, there might be some shining rays of hope here. This Act continues, despite the fact that I think it is leveling off, continues to be a moving target because right now what we're dealing with are how are the federal agencies going to deal with this? I'm daily getting emails that say what does this unemployment mean for SSI recipients? The only direction we have from Social Security is the regular rules apply. So, it's unearned income and it's going to wipe out their cash. But is that a big deal? When we talk later, I'm not so sure it's a big deal at all. I think it's an opportunity. HUD. HUD has pretty much said now, I just found this out yesterday, they have said that the $600 unemployment checks aren't going to count. We know the stimulus checks aren't going to count, but every federal agency that our people deal with have got to come out with instructions. Some of you know I've relocated from Massachusetts to New Mexico. I came from a state where we gave everything away but much to my shock, the $600 federal bump in unemployment will count in Massachusetts when they're determining your SNAP grant. You know, so we can expect really different things from every state because some, as you know, those other benefits are controlled jointly by state and federal law. The federal regulations be very general, the state being specific. So a lot of what we told you in class potentially years ago is going to be the same thing we're looking for. So, it's going to be awhile before we know what the agencies are going to do and my guess is Social Security may very well wait till the crisis is over to respond to this. You know, when they see the workload that is going to blow up in their faces, that is when we're going to see it. So, expect changes. Expect them every day, and expect surprises and some of the surprises are not good. And you'll hear about that. The important thing about this is while we have a moving target on our hands, what we tell you today is correct today. I'm not vouching for any of this information after we stop this webinar, because we're watching, you know, the first thing I do in the morning, you know it's 5:30, I grab a cup of coffee, I'm on the IRS website, the Treasury website, the Social Security website. It's been a great three and a half weeks [laughter]. You know, you know, so, but we are trying to make sure that you're up the snuff. So today we want you to understand what does the CARE Act do for our population of beneficiaries? What do we need to do? You know, this last bullet Ed and I are having an argument about constantly. How do we unplan from work? You guys are all benefits planners. You built plans to get people to work. Now they've been laid off. You know, my, my opinion, and this is solely my opinion, is that we are in the middle of a crisis. There are no job descriptions right now. Yeah, I don't have a job description that requires me to do all of this COVID stuff but it's a crisis - we need to do it. So, you may find yourself working with people who are now newly laid off and need assistance or referrals to people to help with unemployment, to people help filing these non-filer taxes to get their SNAP benefits back. We are now in a position to help maximize our clients' benefits so that in three months when they come back to you and say, I'm going back to work, we can all undo it. So I'm fully expecting that our workload is going to continue to increase, you know, over the next several months as we're trying to help people get back on their feet with new public benefits. Unplanning from work, yeah I did, I made it up. I don't know the term of ours, but it's going to be before we're finished with it.

>> Yeah, I'm not a fan of the word, as Ray told you. I would rather say let's go back to benefits management in these issues, but, but I understand Ray's sentiment and, and I know he's right on that. It's just the term.

>> You know, and when you see all these people need help returning to the public benefit systems and maximizing their benefits in order to survive the crisis, while at the same time preparing to return to work hopefully at the same job in three to four months, I put it in quotes because I said it and that's how I think our jobs are changing. You know, and we can still be helping people in very dramatic and very powerful ways. So Ed, I'm going to turn it over to you for the next couple of slides.

>> All right, my friend. You got it. And so let me, let me give folks some sort of like a little roadmap of what's been going on. Ray just covered for you the intro and talking about how we view what's happening. I'm going to spend about a half hour on the issue of the stimulus payments and only the stimulus payments. And then I'm going to hand the baton back to Ray and he's going to spend a half hour on the issue of unemployment-enhanced benefits and how they affect everything else. Again, let me just give you the caveat that Ray's already given you twice and I'm going to give it to you a third time. What you hear today is good today. I think on the federal issues as Ray told you, we are all set. But, but, you know that and 5.75 will get you a good cup of a venti americano at Starbucks, okay? That's the bottom line. In fact, let me begin to highlight that by telling you what's happened. Look at the CARES Act. It's got what we called stimulus payments and that's what they were being called. And then all of a sudden they changed the name to economic impact payments. That's the same as stimulus payments, but they changed the terminology. So you have to stay on top of the terminology so that when client calls up and says stimulus payments or economic impact payments, you know what they are talking about and you can explain it to them, that this is an 800-plus page bill that has been interpreted and looked at by the media and other politicians. And things change almost on a daily basis. But let me tell you what this CARES Act does. It basically says that they're going to direct payments to the American public, okay? But it's not to everyone. It is only for those individuals with an adjusted gross income. And we all have done our taxes. We all know that at the end of page 1 or 2 of the 1040 it gives us a term, adjusted gross income, and that's what's basically used for our tax purposes. It's adjusted gross income under $75,000 and for a couple, it's under $150,000 dollars. But then they said, that's not enough, okay? If you are a head of household with one child and an adjusted gross income of under $112,500, okay, they will receive $1200. That's it. Now, think about this for a minute. Each person in a couple is going to receive $1200. So that means that a couple should be getting $2400 and then they added what Ray has called a kicker, and that's a great term for the word for what's happening, and that's available for each dependent. If they are under age 17 and in school, remember, dependents, under age 17 and in school, and that kicker is $500 per dependent child, okay? Not $500 for all but per dependent child. So, let's give you the example on slide 10 and folks, we've gotten about a hundred questions asking if you're going to get these slides and the answer is absolutely. You will be. I'm sorry, I thought they had already been sent to you ahead of time. But, but because we've been making changes on a steady basis, it's probably why we didn't' send them out before but you will get them after this training. But let's go through this example. There's mom, Patricia, my wife, dad Ed Lopez, filing jointly with three dependent kids under age 17 and in school. In that case, there will be 1200 for mom, 1200 for dad, and 500, 500, and 500 for each of the three kids for a total of $3900. That's how that works. There's going to be a phase-out of payments and it is associated with increased income. The higher your income, the lower your payout until you get to zero. It's like remember when we talked about SSI and we talked about the break-even point? It's the same concept. It's going to zero out when an individual's adjusted gross income exceeds $99,000 for one person and for joint filers without children, at $198,000 dollars. So it's basically an extra 33 percent and it gets phased out just like SSI until you reach that break-even point. In this case is that zeroed out, okay? The key that you need to remember is that stimulus payments are not going to be taxable, and that's an incredibly, incredibly positive thing going on out there. Because one of the concerns people had when they were first announced was that they will get the money now and then at the end of the year, they will be, basically be told that hey all that money you got, it's all taxable and so basically your tax refund is going to be a lot lower, or you're going to wind up paying money, all right? Not the case. Not taxable. Extremely important, important. Now, we've got about ten questions already in the box about how the stimulus payment is going to impact other benefits, okay. And I'm just going to reach you from the CARES Act itself because it's very clear and then we're going to go through everything in detail. Not-

>> Ed, I-

>> Yeah?

>> I've been trying to answer, they're coming in by the dozens.

>> I know they are, just, if you [inaudible]. But we will be covering all of this stuff in detail when we get to those programs.

>> Yeah, and I've already-

>> I have to say, this is critical.

>> Yep, it is. So here goes. Notwithstanding any other provision of law, any stimulus payment or economic impact payment made to any individual under this statute or act shall not be taken into account as income, not income, and shall not be taken into accounts as resources for a period of 12 months from the receipt of any federal, state, or local program financed and whole or in part with federal funds. So let me just say that in English now. It means it's not going to be income for any program and, and resources only for 12 months. Now, as we say that, you know, we're going to take you through each one of the programs, however, so you see what the effect is going to be, all right? Because that to me is important. Let's begin with the SSI. So, obviously stimulus payments are not going to count in the month received as income, because as we've all heard already, it's not considered income. Additionally, they're not going to count as a resource for 12 months from the month of receipt. As Ray wrote here, it's pretty simple and it is favorable to SSI recipients. Look, it's akin to what happens with the Earned Income Tax Credit. It's not income and exempt, excluded for 12 months. That's what they're treating it like, like a tax credit basically under these circumstances, okay? Simple as that. Now, how are they ever going to prove, because I know people going to ask the question, that any money left over is quote stimulus payment money or economic impact? Don't worry about it - it's not going to happen. SSA understands that our people are basically dying here and they need, absolutely need these payments just to survive. We're not going to worry about that. It's not going to happen, okay? Now, the big question however is you're an SSI recipient. How do you get a stimulus payment check or what they're calling an economic impact payment. So here's how it works. SSI recipients, and we've put in there some RR retirees. That means railroad retirees. These groups of people are not going to have to file with the IRS unless they have qualifying children. Remember when we covered the Earned Income Tax Credit and we talked about qualifying children? It's basically the same standards. People with dependent children must file with the IRS in order to receive the $500 per dependent payment. And let me tell you, they had to have filed. They had to have filed by the end of the day yesterday to get them, okay? Process takes about 15 minutes. We've given you the site here and then the person goes to the non-filer box. That's it. That's it. It's very simple. The process takes no more than 15 minutes. I went to it just to see how easy it was and when I put in my name, it spat hahaha you don't qualify. But, but and I'm glad that I'm in good enough shape that I, that I don't have to because I think people who need it should get it. But the bottom line however is that the document is actually simple. The instructions are very clear so that our SSI recipients should be able to go in, boom, and get this done fast. All VA pensioners are going to have to file and you remember, VA pensioners. There's two kinds of Veterans Administration benefits - compensation and pension. Pension which is a poverty program for veterans, they have to file. Now remember, I want to before I move from this slide. This group is not going to have to file with the IRS. It's only those that have qualifying children that have to file. They have to file their qualifying children. If they wanted to collect an additional $500 for their child, they would have had to have filed yesterday, okay? That's how it works. I just want you to know that.

>> Ed?

>> Yes, sir.

>> I agree with you wholeheartedly, that yesterday was the deadline. My question of the day, you know, because I wake up and there's always another COVID question.

>> I know what' you're going to ask already. Next year.

>> What? No, next year, but I, I think that because that and this is just a thought but because the federal deadline for taxes is now July 15th, I would encourage those SSDI folks who did not claim their dependents to get on the non-filer site and do it now.

>> You mean SSI, you mean SSI.

>> Well, or SSDI if they have to claim their dependents because they didn't pay taxes. You know, they should be doing that now because it's possible that when the filing deadline in July 15th occurs, that might spur a payment. But otherwise, it will be next year.

>> Absolutely, yeah, absolutely.

>> 15 minutes.

>> Absolutely. Ray is right and that's one of the questions that Ray and I batted around in the email was wait a minute, how can they say by Wednesday when in fact they've actually delayed, delayed the filing of taxes til July. And I wrote to Ray and I said can you imagine if that's what they tell people with money, that you have to claim it by Wednesday? They would have an, a revolt! But they listen to those people. They don't listen to our clients. But we have a lot of lobbying going on out there and so that's the rule as of today. But as Ray said, it could change. It could change tomorrow, next week, next month, or by July 15. Oops, sorry, I went too fast there. So we already talked about the zero filers with dependents and let me just go through these categories. You'll recognize them because we've covered them with the Earned Income Tax Credit before. But in order to get that $500 per dependent payment, each dependent must be all the following - claimed on a tax return. If not, they wouldn't be a dependent. Under the age of 17 and in school. Related to you, what a surprise. The dependent cannot provide more than 50% of their own support. In other words, that means that the person who's doing the claiming of $500 provides more than 50% for the dependent support. It must be a citizen, have US national or US resident alien with as we found out in the Earned Income Tax Credit a valid social security number. And they've got to have lived with the filer for at least half the year. So those are the same requirements that you see when people are claiming dependents for qualifying children purposes in the Earned Income Tax Credit. And I think what they've done here is that they've done a lot of the tracking in the Earned Income Tax Credit when applying these benefits for dependents also. So for you guys, this is really an important because as you know, since almost every one of you has gone through the Ray and Ed benefits management training courses, the bottom line is that we always say to you that it's really important that you work with your consumers, clients, on their financial literacy. And this right now is your opportunity to say to your client, listen. You need to go out there and open up a bank account. You need to have direct deposit made possible, because it's going to benefit you. And if they go well, I'd rather not, the answer is then simple. Well, let me tell you, if you do that, you've got direct deposit, the odds are that you are going to get a stimulus or economic impact payment in the next couple of weeks. But if you, don't the paper checks are not going to be issued until September of 2020. So do you want your money now or do you want your money later? And that September 2020 is far away and it could become further and further away as they see what the issues are. So, what's it going to be? So again, this is a way of you guys making sure that you do some good financial literacy training. Let me also tell you something else. I was discussing this issue with Jim Sheldon who used to be at Neighborhood Legal Services who helped write the article that we put together. And we were talking about whether people should comb their files if they have access to them remotely, that is, right. To send out a letter to clients whose cases are no longer open, saying have you heard about this? Let me give you some tips - if you're an SSI person, make sure you've got direct deposit, blah-blah-blah-blah blah, just to let them know what's going on so that, because you'll be helping a lot of people if you do. And I felt that that was really important to do that now because not a lot of new people are walking in the door. So it's time to go through and say hey, what, who did we serve in the past and how can we help them out best, okay? Now, let's go to the next topic. We've covered SSI and stimulus payments, SSI economic impact payments. Now we're going to cover title 2 benefits. And you'll recall that Ray and I have explained to you that we use the term title 2 as an umbrella. It's an umbrella to include SSDI, CDB which is childhood disability benefits, and DWB which is disabled widowed and widowers benefits, okay? Those are the three largest category and this one is an easy one. Absolutely no impact on title 2 benefits as these are insurance-based disability payments. We've told you that before. Regular, unearned income does not apply, no matter what it is, right? The only thing that applies is income that can be used, that's earned income they can be used, towards looking at SGA after the trial work period, right? Now, these benefits, okay, typically could be taxable, the title 2 benefits, but the stimulus payment will not be included in any taxation determination. So, let's assume that someone gets $1,000 title 2 a month. That's $12,000 a year. Those $12,000 are taxable. If they are working, they get added to the income in terms of taxable. But the amount of payments are they get from the stimulus payment, let's say $1,200, that will not be included in what it is taxable, period. So, if they're using Quicken, if people are going to accountants, people will know Quicken has already issued a, a email, my son sent it to us, saying that they are updating their forms to, to make sure that it accounts for stimulus payments. So just so you know that. Stimulus payments are unearned income and of course, in the title 2 area there are no resource limitations whatsoever because you're only getting in what you paid or you're only getting out what you paid in, right? So no resource limitations whatsoever. Now the question again to take it to the same level that we did with SSI. Must there be a tax filing for title 2 recipients? No filing is necessary, okay, because they're receiving a Social Security benefit. But we have the same advice for these clients that we had for individuals that had SSI. And that advice is listen, make sure you have a bank accounts, make sure you have direct deposit, because if you don't, you're going to be waiting quite a while for that stimulus economic impact payment. Everybody got that, right? Very, very, very important. Now, this is one of those in big capital letters warnings and that's about stimulus intercepts. And just the words themselves, you know, give me the heebie-jeebies, alright? Because let me tell you what's going on out there. And we saw this right at the beginning, we started seeing it, I started seeing it on Twitter and on Facebook right away. People saying oh my goodness, my bank intercepted my stimulus payment because a loan company or a credit card company or because I had an overdrawn account and they've claimed it. And that's like oh my goodness gracious, it's happening, okay. Simple as that. It is happening. So there's a wonderful article that was put together by the National Clearing Consumer Law, I forget what it's called, Coalition or whatever and you have the citation right there on slide 18. I suggest that you read the article. It gives some great hints. There's just too much for us to cover already. We don't want this to be an all-day training but read that article and then if you have questions about it, feel free to write Ray and me both and one of us will reply and we'll copy in the other person, okay? So, so that, just so you know. But, but that's the story. They are being intercepted and so you need to be able to explain that to your clients. So we've covered three topics so far. SSI, the title 2, and now we're going to cover SNAP benefits. And a number of people wrote in and said that they had listened to a webinar yesterday done by NBI in which they said it's not going to be any impact to most of these benefits and, and they were wondering if that was correct. And the answer is absolutely and you're going to be hearing it though step-by-step and unlike what I've seen other groups do, which is to say no impact on anyone. Ray and I want to take you through each set of benefits individually so you can see how it's looked at. No expected impact on SNAP benefits because of the stimulus payments. None whatsoever. SNAP happens to be a needs-based benefit program that fits that definition that I read to you on slide 9 or 10, simple as that. So it's not going to be income when it's received and it's not going to be a resource for twelve months after the receipt. So with SNAP benefits, absolutely no problem. None whatsoever. How about HUD, Housing and Urban Development? You know that a lot of people are actually living in subsidized housing, public housing. They've got Housing Choice Voucher programs, etc, right? So what's the impact on those folks? Absolutely zippo. There is no impact on rent subsidies due to the receipt of the stimulus payment. None whatsoever. Now let me tell you - HUD never considers resources, okay? All they consider is the interest that's earned on the resources. So you might have $100,000 in the bank but your interest nowadays is a whopping 1.2 percent. You get $1,200 for the year on that. All they would count as income is that $1,200 interest on the resource. So no worries whatsoever. Now, this last bullet is really important. There are going to be some state housing programs that are not receiving federal funds. We have one right here in Rochester, and they are going to have to set up their own special rules. And you guys should check your state and should check the different housings there. I can tell you that the one in Rochester that's down by the Corn Hill area has said that they will also be exempting it, okay? So just so you know. But look, not everyone is going to do that. We're in New York; some folks might be in Mississippi or in Kentucky where it's going to be treated differently so we want you to check those rules, both the states and the rules of the individual housing program. All right, both of those. Always.

>> Ed?

>> Yes, sir.

>> Ed, if I can just add something to that last bullet.

>> Of course, buddy.

>> When you have a, when you have a state housing program, we immediately all assume it was built and it's run with state money. This, the exception to the counting says unless there was some federal funding involved, so you may have to just ask somebody. Yes, I realize this is a Mississippi State Housing Development - was it built using federal funds? Are there any federal funds coming in for upkeep or management? And if there are, you've got a great argument that the $1200 shouldn't matter.

>> Absolutely, 100%. And Ray, while you were just talking, I was looking at some of the questions in the box and someone just asked, they're not sure they understand how SSI and SSDI recipients are going to get their stimulus checks if they don't file taxes. The bottom line-

>> Okay that-

>> Goo ahead.

>> That, that was up in the air for weeks-

>> Not anymore.

>> Screaming and yelling and hollering. Right now, Social Security, Treasury, and the IRS have all come to agreement that if you receive benefits, you will get these payments directly. That means the recipient and the spouse. Now remember, a lot of our client who are on benefits have never worked, which means they probably never filed, or if they worked just a little, they probably didn't file. If they did not file, nobody knows that there are dependents out there. So, those people who have worked and not filed taxes need to use that IRS site to claim the dependents. Any beneficiary who gets a direct deposit, gets a check or gets their money deposited on one of those Direct Express cards, will automatically receive the $1,200.

>> Right and Ray, here's a question that was asked and I think I know the answer and, but it's speculation and I think anything you say is going to be speculation also. But it's a Michele McDonald question. Couples working. They have received a tax return paper check in the past, but not through a direct deposit. They went to the website and they put in their bank information. Will they now receive the stimulus check by direct deposit or by check since they haven't received it yet? And my response is look, God knows. If they're doing things properly and they've actually put in the information, you would expect them to have it be direct deposited. But we don't know, right Ray?

>> I think we don't know and I'm guessing no.

>> No, because they're going to say you've been getting checks.

>> Working--, well, the way it's working as they are using the 2018 or 2019 tax return to determine whether you're eligible for payments. And if that tax return doesn't have the routing and banking number on it, you're going to get a paper check. You know, so my guess is no one's going to look at the non-filer site because they have everything they need to make the payment on that paper, on the original tax return.

>> And by the way, Ray, I think that that's the right answer because, and, and I know that you'll say but it's not, some people say it's not fair but the bottom line is that the government is trying to do things as quickly as possible. Quickly means they're doing what they already have on the record.

>> And they're doing it for millions and millions of people. You know, so they're not going to take the extra step to look to see that you tried to correct something. They're just using that document, cut Ed a check for $1,200 and go.

>> Absolutely.

>> That's the way it's going to work. I mean, people might be waiting a little bit longer. These payments are going to be available til the end of the year or for people who need to file with dependents, the next tax year. And know it's not fair. There is nothing fair about this. If you think it's fair that an individual's getting $1,200 and American Airlines is getting billions of dollars to build new planes and park them out in the desert because no one's flying, then, you know, I mean, this is not fair.

>> It's, it's, right, it is absolutely not fair. So people keep saying but how can they, how will they know if they have not been filing in the past. SSA and the IRS always have been able to share information. They've been given the authority to share that information. Remember you guys who have taken our course and you request a BPQI and we say to you that you have to file two release forms - one for Social Security to get their information and one giving SS, IRS the permission to release information about the clients to SSA? Congress has given, has given each of the two agencies, corresponding agencies to share information so that these payments get out ASAP, okay? That's how that works, my friend.

>> And they all, they've always changed, they've always exchanged information.

>> Right.

>> How do you think that SSA has intercepted tax refunds? Because they changed, they exchange information. You know, if you get benefits from one federal program, every federal program knows about it. How does somebody on SSI or SSDI lose a chunk of change because they're behind in child support? Because they share information.

>> Absolutely. All these agencies, they have the authority to share information and in this case, it's sharing information for a good reason. Now, let's go back here and my, my friends, we're trying to answer the questions as they come in. You know, we see a whole group of questions on the same topic, we're going to do what Ray and I just did. We're going to respond to those questions, you know, take them and just respond to them right then and there. Because then you know it, people are thinking about it.

>> I think the, the point that people may be missing here, we've got two hours. We have an hour and a half presentation. So, if we can get through the presentation, you know, I'm going to be responding to as many questions as possible. There will be another half hour for you just to ask questions. So if you can wait to see what we're talking about and then have questions, let us know.

>> That's, good point Ray, great point. It's not our usual hour and a half. It's two hours today because we anticipated number one, having, right now we have over 500 participants on the line and number two, we knew that this was a very hot issue. Now, let's look at mortgage security for single-family home owners that have HUD-insured loans. And you'll notice on slide 21 that we bolded HUD-insured loans because we're not talking about loans from a private bank. And sure, okay, these are HUD-insured loans, very specific. Like Fannie Mae type loans. Those borrowers facing financial hardship due to COVID-19 will be allowed what they are calling a forbearance. What that means is that they're going to extend, defer, or reduce payments for up to six months. And then they must be provided with an additional six months' relief if requested by the homeowner. So that could mean a total of one year where they either make no payments or basically defer payments, or make reduce payments for those six months. Okay? So very important. Remember again, it's for those individuals holding HUD-insured loans. It's very limited. It is not for everybody, okay? I've gotten about ten questions in the past week saying oh, can my client that's got a bank loan ask for a forbearance? What they could from them, but there's no law about that. There is a law when it involves okay family homeowners holding HUD-insured loans. Keep that in mind. Now let's look at Medicaid, but let me just go back and tell you what we've covered so far. The effect of the payments on SSI, on title 2, the issue of intercepts, SNAP, and now, and HUD. Okay? Now let's cover Medicaid. As of this minute, and this, we had one state in New York as of about a week ago that had not accepted the 6.2% increase from the federal government in federal medical assistance payment. It's called FMAP, federal medical assistance percentage payments, okay? 6.2%. But since they all have now accepted it, it means that by accepting it they have agreed not to terminate, key word there, word there. Not to terminate any Medicaid recipients who had Medicaid when the crisis began or who became eligible during the crisis unless the recipient requests a voluntary termination. This is incredibly good information. It basically means that our clients' Medicaid is absolutely safe. That's what it means. It's absolutely safe. Now that I've said that, let me take you to the next slide. The stimulus payment is going to have no impact whatsoever on Medicaid. Why? Well, you saw what I just said and I read you the language in the CARES Act and Medicaid payments qualify as those kinds of payments that are going to say no impact on income and no resource counting for twelve months after the receipt. And again, we foresee no problems with that 12-month issue down the road. So this is a really, and I mean a really good thing for our clients. And I just, you know, want to make sure that you understand that. Now, let me though having said that take you to our next slide. Because if you recall, when Ray and I did the our benefits management training that the overwhelming majority of you attended, we showed you during our series three, this big house with all these rooms and every room had, was, all was the Medicaid house. Had a different kind of Medicaid in there. SSI, CHIP, Medicaid spenddown, Medicaid for disabilities, waivers, community waivers, etc. Well, let me just tell you that it is possible that a state could move recipients from one room to another as their statuses change. And we've given you an example here. For instance, if a recipient returns to work during the crises, a status change to 1619B or a, you know, Medicaid buy-in type program, could be allowed and might occur. And when we start talking about unemployment-enhanced payments, you'll see how that can work. But I will tell you one thing that Ray and I stress every time we do this training nationally. If you've seen one Medicaid program and it's your state's Medicaid program, you've only seen one Medicaid program. Every state is different. And I'm going to tell you the same thing that I tell you and told you during our course. You, Google is your friend. Google Medicaid. Put in your state and the words stimulus payment. If nothing comes up, put in Google, put in Medicaid your state and economic impact payment and something will come up, okay? Some states are calling it economic impact payments, some are calling it stimulus payments, because Congress has called it both. So try both, but you will see what's going on in your state by doing it that way. Now, we're going to talk about Medicare and, and this one is up fairly I think simple discussion, at least, you know, I consider it very simple. Stimulus payments are going to have no impact on Medicare, simple as that. What about Medicare savings plans? Remember what those are? We're talking about Quimby, Slim B, Q1, remember those that we covered during our course? Those programs are in some cases paying all of the premiums associated with parts B and C, in some cases paying some of the premiums, right? In some cases paying a little less. In some cases they're covering deductibles, in some cases they're not. In some cases they're going to cover co-pays, some cases not. What will be the effect there? They will not be impact, impacted whatsoever. So if you see something where someone says oh you are no longer eligible for QUIMBY because you got this stimulus money, the answer nuh-uh-uh-uh-uh, is no way, Jose. And you call them on it. You pull up our slides, you're going to get our materials, you put up our materials and it will clearly just send it to them. We list citations in our materials and you can get that reversed. I haven't heard any complaints yet but hey, it doesn't mean we're not going to get them, okay? Pure and simple. Then we ask a question is there a state issue here, and my response is that given the nature of that definition, the answer is and given that we're talking about federal here, the answer is absolutely not. But Ray, I don't know if you disagree so I wanted to give you a chance to comment.

>> You know, I think it's pretty much up to the states but I agree.

>> Yeah, I don't think it's, it's going to happen.

>> Yeah, I don't think we're going to have to see too much issues with that. You know, at this point when you're talking healthcare, healthcare is pretty much going nowhere. The only group that I'm aware of that could be impacted are immigrants. You know, given some statuses, you know, even in cases where you may be in a state like California or Massachusetts where they do allow for emergency care for undocumented people, those people aren't going to be getting the stimulus money but some immigrants will. And I've heard this morning that some states are backing off on some of those, some of that coverage And the feds, I mean with, with the declaration yesterday or the day before that there was going to be no more-

>> No more immigrants allowed.

>> Some limitations, no more immigrants allowed. Some of that, that's, that, that whole bill or whatever it is, it is already in before the legislature is also impacting access to healthcare. So you got it, that's going to be a watch out, you know, watch out. And clearly for Medicaid purposes, check with your states. Because--

>> Absolutely.

>> Because some states like California, Massachusetts, New York, which may not be allowing full Medicaid are still allowing emergency access.

>> Absolutely correct, absolutely correct. Thanks, Ray. Two last little I just want to cover here. The first one is Temporary Assistance for Needy Families. And again, the stimulus payment is going to have absolutely zero impact on TANF monthly payments in the month received because guess what? Income is excluded and it's excluded income and it will not be count as a resource until twelve months after receipt. Again, Ray and I want to put every one of these programs up there so you saw them so that instead of having one slide that said it's not going to count for any of these, because we could've done it with one slide, that slide the said stimulus and then set it, after that, it applies to this, that, that, the other. We wanted to see each one of these individually so that you know for sure and you can actually then explain to someone that tries to count it why it is not supposed to be counted. Finally, oops, again, it's either moving too slow or too fast, Ray. Veteran's pension benefits, okay? I've already told you at the beginning of this session it is a needs-based monthly benefit. It's paid to wartime veterans whose disabilities are not service-connected. Disability, pension, I mean, the Veterans Disability Compensation Benefits are for people that are service-connected. We're talking here about individuals with disabilities that were not service-connected, that are age 65, okay, or older, and of low income. Again, the stimulus payments is going to have absolutely zippo impact on the veteran's benefit pension as it's not going to be counted as income in the month it's received and it's not going to be counted as a resource until twelve months after receipt. So, every bit of news that I've given you so far for the most part is really good news. Now, are they giving enough money out to each individual? Absolutely not. Should they be giving more to regular citizens and less to companies like Boeing? Absolutely so. But what they are giving to individuals is being treated in the most favorable light possible. And that part is really good. And Ray, it's up to you now for unemployment insurance.

>> Ed?

>> Yes, sir.

>> I want to go back one slide.

>> Sure, buddy.

>> I've got to rain, I've got to rain on your good news.

>> Oh.

>> These veterans, the veterans pensioners are the only group that was not resolved. If somebody's on veteran's pension, they need to use the IRS-

>> Oh, right, and we said that in the prior slide, when we talked about-

>> All right, oh, I'm sorry.

>> Yeah that's, that was already in there, yeah.

>> I was giving Ohio kudos for increasing SNAP. I'm sorry.

>> Oh yeah, yeah, no. We, that information we included way, way back. I forget what slide it was but we covered it. Yeah, we covered it on slide, I'm going through this right now. On slide 13, all VA pensioners will have to file, okay?

>> You know, you know those webinars that we did during regular class where you would ask me what do you think about that and I said I have no idea what you just said? You're about to go into that status [laughter]. There are lots of questions in that box.

>> That is great. I hear, I hear very well. And folks, it's 2:08. Ray, we're hoping, I think Ray can cover this last part, like 30, 35 minutes which will give us another 20 minutes. We've been taking a lot of questions during this already and covering big questions in bank but I will start going through these questions, Ray, while you start yakking. All right, buddy?

>> Okay.

>> Yep.

>> Unemployment insurance is a very interesting and creative opportunity right now. And it is a bit confusing. We're looking at a program, remember, that has very few federal rules and is really controlled by the state. However, there are new rules out there. You know, unemployment, I mean, I'm going to interject some of these rules into these slides because they're on my desk right now for tomorrow's paper. Remember when we talked about this. You have to have worked long enough and or made enough money in order to meet your base period. That base period is set by your state and should be on your state's website. A lot of the websites now have calculators. So if you have a worker who is working for somebody else, then by all means look. If you're not sure, file. That's the rule. Just tell your client you're not sure if they've worked long enough or will qualify, but file. You know, it's better than telling them no, you don't meet the example. Now, we figured this out for Washington State. In Washington, you have to have worked for 680 hours, there's no dollar figure here, in the 12 to 18 months before your claim was filed. You know, in New York you've got to work for six months and earn a certain period of time. Some states require nine months. So you've got to figure out what that is in your state. When in doubt, like I said, file. The one thing that we know for certain is that the CARES Act for the first time in history allows self-employed people to file and gig workers. And that, if you think about Lyft and Uber drivers, those people were not able to file for unemployment because they can make a choice whether to take a ride or not, right? So they're kind of self-employed as well. Those people can file. Their payments will be based on their last year's tax return. So, there's a new group of people that we can help out. Now, the COVID-related layoffs and I'm going to go far, as far as saying COVID-related voluntary quits, are not going to be due to someone's fault because remember, if you quit your job voluntarily, you don't get unemployment. If I quit my job voluntarily because I have an underlying immunodepressive disorder and I'm at risk and you want me to work in a grocery store, I don't think so. That's voluntarily quitting with good cause. So, don't tell people who quit that they shouldn't have quit. Ask why did you quit. Most states pay 26 weeks in benefits. The CARES Act has extended that and added 13 weeks which means 39 weeks of eligibility are available. However, as we go along in time, if you're laid off in November, that extension is gone in December. So that person will only get 26 weeks. Just count those months. This is the big opportunity we have right now. The CARES Act also adds $600 dollars a week to the state unemployment that's payable. Now, I'm going to use self-employed and the Lyft, the gig drivers, for this example. There's a special formula that will allow a self-employed person not to meet the state benefit. But what it results in is that they may only be eligible for half of the state minimum payment. If your minimum payment is $100 and you cut that in half to get $50, the net result is that your payment turns into $650 a week. Because all you need to do is qualify for one dollar in state unemployment to get that $600 kicker. Very, very important, because if we're talking about an SSI recipient living on $783 a month when there's a potential for getting $650 dollars a week, make an informed choice. The SSI is gone, right? The cash is gone. But didn't Ed tell you that there's a moratorium on terminations for healthcare? $783 dollars and Medicaid or $650 bucks a week and Medicaid. SSI goes into suspense, right? Twelve months' worth of suspense. Thirty-nine weeks does not equal 12 months. Notice the CARE Act $600 bump ends July 31st. So somebody who leaves and gets that $600, leaves work and gets that $650 dollars in state and federal benefits will be reduced in July to $50. They call Social Security, this is essential work. Explain that they have lost $600 a week in income, their current income now is $200 a month unearned income. Do the math. You have a partial SSI payment. Even if they continue to collect that $50, December 31st is not 12 months away. At the end of this extension, the person loses unemployment, reports to Social Security, they do the math and the person's get a full SSI check and we hope is then returning to work because this crisis is over. And so you got to know your state rules. Find out what your base period is. Know how your state process works. Given that there were 21 million people unemployed, yes, it's going to take a couple of weeks to get your check. You know, yes, it's going to take a couple of weeks to get that $600 bucks. But it's still there and think about our clients, what they could do with that money. I mean it's, it's almost limitless. So let's talk about unemployment insurance and title 2. It's unearned income. Title 2 is insurance. The only impact on title 2 is earned income. Unemployment insurance will not impact that. Again, look to your state rules. New York's website says right on the front page, If you receive Social Security benefits based on disability, you can apply. Massachusetts allows collection of both. Some states might reduce one or the other. Some states have a complete ban. If you are on a disability benefit, you can't apply. You've got to check out those state rules, yeah, but most states, this is going to be non-countable income. May as well take it. There's no resource limit, either. The SSDI population, the DWB, the disabled widows, and the childhood disability beneficiaries can save this extra money. It's a good time to start massing wealth. You know, don't live large. Sure get take out more than once, fix your cars, buy a new TV. But let's think about saving some of this money. For SSI, this is unearned income and as you know, everything but $20.00 counts. So these folks who are applying for unemployment insurance are going to likely lose their SSI because if they even have a dollar in state unemployment, they've got $2404.00 a month. Now, you see this? The second bullet here, when we told you either last year, last semester, or five years ago that an SSI recipient has to apply for any other benefit because SSI is the bottom of the federal, of the federal barrel? We kind of lied to you. That is the expectation but notice what that bullet says. That's what the law says. An SSI recipient must apply for unemployment if they are informed of potential eligibility by SSA. No one's telling anybody to do anything right now. I have not heard about any recipient getting a letter saying oh, by the way, apply for unemployment. That's not happening because it's not essential. So your client can choose not to apply but listen to what I'm saying about the potential during this crisis. If your worker has met that base period or they were self-employed or gig workers and qualify for state unemployment, why not take the extra money? You know, we're looking at a $600 fed, $600 bump per week through the end of July. That's probably more money than our clients have had access to in a very long time. What can you do with it? Anything you want. If you put it in a bank account, you know, it's not going to count for resources until this crisis is over. You know, you can't be terminated. You can only be suspended because you have too many resources. And again, that's for 12 months. So basically it's a free ride. At the end of this period, what we would have to do before we could get those benefits back is dispose of those resources. But for those people who are eligible for an able account if their disability began before age 26, this is the perfect opportunity to start saving some money. So, what does that give you? Some financial literacy skills. It gets people into a bank. You know, it gets them out of check cashing stores. Able money is very, very accessible by the SSI recipient and it doesn't affect benefits. So, we need to think about this and it's a matter of doing the math. Okay, the Washington minimum payment is $188 and I'm going to start pushing buttons now, Ed. So watch me. $188 a week plus $600 equals $788 a week.

>> Very good, Ray. And I'm not even trying to pay attention because I'm answering about a thousand questions but that was correct. That's correct.

>> Now, an SSI recipient in Washington can see, state received $783 a month. So if I just multiply that by four, it's $3152 a month if they apply for unemployment and get the minimum. Medicaid cannot be terminated. That's the wonder of this. Your SSI cash is gone, clearly, but you're in suspense for up to twelve months and this $600 kicker is only going to last until July. But just think how much money that is. What month is it. Let's do May, June and July. We'll do three months times three, that's $9500 bucks. You could have somebody who is in debt, debt free. You need a car? Buy it. You need to have your car repaired? Buy it. You don't know what to do with the money? Open an able account if you can. You know, this is a great opportunity for people. In July, well let's say August, we go back to $188 dollars times four, which is $752. $732 counts; you're going to get an SSI check for $50. That gives you Medicaid, right? It was never terminated but you're back in the ball game and in December, if things still aren't well and people aren't back to work, your person gets $783 plus Medicaid. We haven't interrupted health care at all. All we have done is increase our clients' access to cash for living expenses.

>> Hey Ray, I'm going to just stop you for a minute. We've got a number of people asking the following question and every one has a slightly different fact pattern, but they're always just about same thing. Let's take a client who was dismissed from a job about a week before you had the whole state closure and this whole issue came in. And they were dismissed because of their own behavior. But now they can't find a new position due to the closing of the state. Are they eligible for unemployment at this time?

>> Well, if it's considered misconduct, you know that's an exemption. So the question is, you know, it wasn't a voluntary quit, it was a termination. Was it a termination with good cause? If it was, then they're not eligible for unemployment.

>> Right. And that, and the reason I wanted to say, to ask that first question is because when people ask other questions like what if someone quits their job, they quit it, okay, because they have a sick parent that they're going to care for now, or a sick child they're caring for. Will they qualify?

>> Yes, absolutely.

>> And I said basically typically no, because the employer could challenge it. But giving these dark days, employers aren't going to challenge it and I think that would not be considered an exception. But you know, again these are all like, these are great questions, you know? Because people are saying, are asking these kinds of questions. What if someone doesn't meet all of the base period? Would they qualify? And the answer is typically no.

>> Typically no.

>> But it depends.

>> But it depends, because if they were self-employed, the formula is now different. You will see that formula very soon on the fact sheet. If they're gig workers, you know, Uber, Lyft are the obvious ones but it may be somebody who, you know, I'm a DJ. You know, I get called, hey, I'm unemployed. Unless somebody wants to have a party with four people, because then there will only be five of us, right? That's not going to happen. So they're gig workers, too. So remember, there's a lot of exceptions now and they will be allowed to do this. But somebody who has been fired for misconduct, they're out of luck. You know, I, I'm going to disagree with Ed a little bit because I believe that if somebody were to leave to take care of somebody in their family who was sick that that might be good cause, you know, particularly if they have asked their employer, you know, let me work different hours. You know, my parents need 24-hour care, I've got three siblings so I could work these hours instead of those hours. And they said no? I'd go for it.

>> Right, and I would too. In Rochester years ago, I've been asking these issues constantly and years ago, the only wonderful employer that would allow that would be Kodak. And they would actually pay people unemployment benefits then, okay, and not challenge them. Most other companies challenged it because it meant that their unemployment payments would go up and they don't want it to go up.

>> You know, and that's the question here. We're in, we're in a really dark period as Ed said. And it's not a recession. Is that kind of happening?

>> Right.

>> It might be but you don't call it a recession when this, we call it a recession if the emergency ended and nothing changed, you know. But we're hoping that everything comes back. So, you know, we're not, we're looking at periods of time where lots of rules are going to be waived. Job search requirements have been waived. Where are you going to find a job, you know? I mean, grocery stores, pharmacies. But you might have restrictions. Our folks have disabilities and if they have disabilities, high blood pressure, kidney problems, liver problems, lung problems, they can't work in those environments. So we're, we're in a different world and my guess is just like happened in 2008 but it was by negotiation then, my guess is that when this crisis is over, the feds are going to swipe clean any increases in employee tax, in employer taxes that were caused by this virus. That's just my guest but I think we're going to find a lot of strange things, some strange, some strange and wonderful that are going to happen when this is all cleaned up at the end. So these two slides, what I'm talking about is the same example I just gave you so I'm not going to do it again. Just remember slides 34 and 35 are giving you reasons why people should apply for unemployment and have that SSI be suspended. You know, because it's going to benefit them. Now, medical help for the uninsured is another part of the CARES Act. It's limited coverage, however. It is coverage for COVID-related medical expenses. So if in fact you had to pay for a test, it would be covered by Medicaid. Now, you don't have to pay for a test, fortunately. If you had to be admitted to the hospital because you tested positive, no issue here. Now, if you're testing positive and you're sent home, there's probably just that one hospital visit that you had. That's covered. What you do at home is buy over-the-counter, you buy aspirin, you know? You buy stuff to put on your body because it hurts. There's not a lot of medication that's available unless you're admitted to the hospital. And then we're talking serious medical costs. Those will also be covered. But notice what happens. The provider or the hospital is accepting, has to have accepted Medicare in the past. Medicare, because we know that there are more Medicare providers out there than there are Medicaid providers. Almost every hospital accepts Medicare. Almost every health provider accepts Medicare. But the hospitals have to agree no balance billing. They will accept the Medicare payments in total satisfaction of the cost. Now, I haven't heard of any issues with this at all and I doubt you're going to find hospitals denying care, you know, or hospitals saying no. You know, pharmacies, private doctors maybe, but I sincerely doubt we're going to see any issue with this at all. What can we expect now, guys? Changes, lots of them. We're going to keep you up to date with those website, the whatchamacallit, I mean, that fact sheet. Yesterday or Tuesday it was I sent out a notice to everybody that's in the portal and everybody in here is in the portal unless you got some people watching the computer with you. And that's fine. If you're not receiving notices through that portal, talk to somebody in your IT department. Get in touch with them to clear my email address for group emails. We told you that when you took the course. If you're using your own personal computer for purposes of working at home, add my email address to your address book so you will get these updates. Because the emergency notice that went out on Tuesday said title 2 recipients have to file by tomorrow. You know, that's going to go out but what you will now see is a once a week update covering everything. Remember that these fact sheets look a lot alike. We're using the same format. The last one you received was dated the 17th. If you receive one dated the 24th or the 27th, throw away the old one. Make sure you're looking at the most recent version of the fact sheets. You know, some of the questions that have come in were answered by the fact sheets or the emergency notices that we're sending out, so please. If you're getting something from me in the portal that says here's a free webinar, don't pay attention to it if you don't want to. If you seek COVID-19, pay attention. Pay attention to everything that's coming out. If your state is doing something that we're not aware of or you have an experience during this rollout that doesn't match what we're saying, we don't know any more than you do. We're guessing a lot, but our guesses have been real good. So if you tell us something that doesn't agree, we'll try to figure it out and you may very well have an impact on the information that everybody's receiving. So, like, you know, we're all on the same team here, guys, and we need your help because you're working with people. Ed and I are just thinking about those people. So let us know what else can we expect. Workload increases, helping your clients to get unready from work. You know, I know some of you are working your private nonprofits. You're not going to have any issues with that, your employer allowing you to help your clients. You know? Some of the C WIP, if you're a social security supported benefits planner, are wondering if they can actually do this. You know, and as I said before when we started, this is a crisis. You may not have a lot of people looking for benefits planning to go to work. But you may have a lot of people coming back to you to say what do I do now. And what you do now is make sure they are referred to every agency that can potentially give them benefits. And plan for that. It's a quick plan. Apply for unemployment. Apply for SNAP. You know, you don't need to apply for healthcare. Apply for TANF if you're eligible. Make sure you're telling everybody else who's giving you money that you got money from somebody else. It'll all work out in the wash and as I said, could potentially give our clients a big boost in money. The other thing that we need to worry about is okay, let's talk about Easter. You know, if in fact the federal emergency ended on Easter Sunday and the country was going to be reopened for business, do you know how many people would be contacting you on Monday? Now that I'm back at work, what happens? All of these people who we're sending back to Social Security to apply for unemployment benefits, to apply for food stamps, to apply for TANF, are going to have to have a new plan to return to work. It's, is it the same pay? Is it the same hours? So I think we can wait for this crisis to end, then we're going to have our own mini crisis of hundreds of people looking for services to get back to work. And I think we just need, you know, because we are not restricted by Social Security, we need to do whatever we can to help our clients get through this crisis. And I guess that's my preachy ending, huh?

>> That's, it's a great preachy ending. I couldn't state it better.

>> You know, and before, you know, and that's exactly, I mean, I truly mean it. I hope you guys understand that I mean everything I say. I don't work with clients. You're my clients and my job changed dramatically when this happened and my job became keeping you informed about what's going on. And if anybody at Cornell tries to stop me, it's not going to work. My other job, my other duties are getting done; I'm just staying up later. So that's my attitude. And just hopefully you can adopt that and run with the flow here. Okay Ed, so what are we going to do-

>> Yeah, let me tell you what we have got here. So what's been happening is that as I'm answering a question, it comes up from five or six other people down the road. You know, the further on down the pile. And then I'm just responding to those by saying I've already responded to that, see above. Because writing a lengthy description again will take up all my time. Secondly, a lot of people are asking the same question that you and I answered before about stimulus payments and unemployment insurance benefits. And I don't know whether people did not understand our answer or if they were too busy paying attention to the question and answer box like I've been and not paying attention to you and, and missed it. So I've said, I've said to them, I've said we've already responds to that orally. Is there something you did not understand. Just so you know that, that, that's what I've been doing. And people are saying so how about taxes on the unemployment? Do they have to pay that the following year, yes or no?

>> It could very well be, you know. I mean, you and you could have SSDI folks in this situation whose SSDI is taxable, you know? It's all going to depend what does income look like when you add up unemployment, SSDI and earnings, you know? Not likely to impact the SSI population as harshly but that is something that when someone does TurboTax, it's going to be a question. When someone goes to their tax preparer, it's going to be a question. Whether the tax preparer is H&R Block, an accountant or the Vitae tax sites. Yes, that could be the case. Now, when you go to apply for unemployment benefits, you can request that taxes be without. So, for those people who had good jobs and are going to get a lot of money back, you know, $600 plus, you know, in Massachusetts now the minimum, the maximum payment's $1400. If I was still living there, I could be pulling $2000 a week. My guess is by the end of the year that's going to make everything I have taxable.

>> Absolutely.

>> I would choose to have those taxes withheld.

>> And in fact, in New York when you go in to apply for unemployment insurance benefits, they will ask you right now whether you want them to withhold taxes from that when they send you the unemployment insurance. And our friend, Jim Sheldon, who helped with our article actually has a son in law that responded yes for the reasons that Ray just mentioned, because it's going to put them on a whole new level. So here's another-

>> You know better, I mean, better safe than sorry. The worst that's going to happen is you're going to get a return.

>> Absolutely, so Ray, there's a question here which is interesting. So Louise Bay, Lewis Bailey says how about hazard pay? Is that going to be considered basically income and taxable down the road? And you know, we don't, there's nothing about that in the CARE guide. This is something that employers are doing on their own. So unless-

>> One thing we-

>> Go ahead.

>> The one thing we do know is that Social Security is being not nice about this. I was trying to think of, I was trying to get the words out in a polite way. Social, now hazard pay, when we're looking at what that is right now, it's adding $2 an hour to your salary, adding $5 an hour to your salary. It could be $50 or $100 a week added to your salary but you're doing the same job. Right now, Social Security's position is that counts as earned income. So, what could we be looking at? Oh my God, I'm in my EPE and I'm now doing SGA. I shouldn't be getting this title 2 benefit. Oh my God, I got $2 more an hour, it's $40 a week by the end of the week, I should be reporting that to Social Security and my SSI is going down. The issue we have is that it is non-essential work to reduce benefits. So, we are looking at a complete disaster that is waiting to happen, because Social Security is saying it counts as income. You know, they're saying the regular rules apply. Now, what happens is we know everybody that's getting that hazard pay is going to have an overpayment. So, we're going from COVID crisis to reemployment planning crisis to overpayments that are going to exist by the thousands. Haven't heard anything from Social Security yet, but what do you think's going to happen to an overpayment if you ask for a waiver of that overpayment and your reason for not being at fault is I reported my wages and you, Social Security, decided this was non-essential work? It's waived. You know, I think we are going to potentially see Social Security faced with such a heavy workload that there may just be blanket waivers from March till December. No overpayments. It's not going to count.

>> I agree a hundred percent and in fact, if Ray and I, when we put together our overpayment session for our summer task, we'll include a slide about that because this is going to be seen by people down the road.

>> Yeah, and I can't promise you that it's going to happen, but I know that one thing Social Security changes the rules for are heavy workloads. And just what's happening now, do you have any idea how much, how long it's going to take them to get caught up? It's going to take years for them to catch up because of what they're not doing right now.

>> Absolutely. So Ray, so here's another question. I'm going to keep us moving because we have-

>> Absolutely, because I'll talk forever.

>> I know, and I'll stop you because you want to get through as many questions as possible. We have eleven minutes. Someone has two jobs, full-time job and a part-time job and they are laid off their part-time job. Can they claim unemployment on that job? My tendency would be to say no, because they've already got a full-time job.

>> Yeah. Yeah, if they had, if they had two part-time jobs and got laid off from one, then they potentially could, they could get partial unemployment but I think I agree with that.

>> Yeah, and you know again, it's open to interpretation but my feeling is that that one's to me is a no-brainer. It's just I say that's a common sense one. But Ray, let's go to the next question. In Ohio, and Christine says they've been told that the minimum of 243 must be made a month for them to qualify for benefits or they won't qualify. That's the rules; it's the base period. And so-

>> That's the base period, yeah.

>> Every, every state has those rules. We had someone else who said well what if someone wasn't working and they got offered a job but then that job was, offer was rescinded because of COVID. Answer is sorry, they don't have a base period there. My son is a grad student at MIT, MBA school. And he's got a job after graduation, he graduates at the end of May, virtually. And yeah, but he's got a job, he's going to keep his job. But he has all these friends and colleagues there who had jobs offers from different businesses, from Google, etc and they've all been rescinded and none of them can, can collect unemployment insurance benefits. That's all there is to it.

>> The only thing I want to add as an exception to that base period is remember - self-employed and gig workers don't have to meet the base period.

>> Right.

>> They can go in and apply. This is, you know, an exception.

>> Gig workers are like Uber, Lyft, those kind of workers.

>> Yeah, and they're, and this is the first time they've ever been able to apply. We told you they couldn't and they couldn't until the CARES Act.

>> Right. So here's Hope's question, and Hope, Ray just answered this but let me say it's the people who are having the same question as you get it. What if it was a layoff because of a loss of contract with the employer? Okay, and again, you remember in those cases, it's not an employee that we're talking about. It's a person who's self-employed and there are special rules for those folks, okay? I just want to make sure that you guys keep that in mind. Here's another one. If a client has a child that is receiving benefits through their title 2 and they just turned 18 but are still in school or remote learning as school's shut down, what happens to this portion of the check?

>> Well, you know, unfortunately nothing's going to happen right now because Social, reducing checks is not essential, you know, to Social Security. Getting people who have lost income more benefits is essential.

>> Is essential.

>> But they're still going to sit back and a good, good question about home schooling though. You know, these kids are not not in school they are in school. Whether or not parents have to drive by the school and pick up a week's worth of assignments and then bring them back, or whether, you know, like, like Santa Fe School District gave everybody computers and actually built hotspots around the city so people without internet could use them. And they're being taught. They have assignments to do on different websites, but most certainly they are meeting with their teachers every day to have a lesson. You know, and then the teachers have to be available between 5:00 and 8:00 to take parental emails because yeah, the parents are helping more now but those kids are still in school so don't let anybody say that somebody is not in school. This is just a new way of being in school.

>> Absolutely, absolutely. Here's another one, and this one I've answered like four different times and it keeps popping up. But it's, someone's saying if a college student has been working 20 hours a week for a youth program that was closed, doors closed down, would they qualify for unemployment based on the doors closing even though they are a college student? A job is a job.

>> A job is a job.

>> So the answer would be yes. Now before, when I answered the question before, Carol, and I said if it's work study, it, it doesn't count. It's not, that's not a real job. That's why I was, I said that. But if it's a separate entity, a job is a job. Absolutely. Next question. In our state, if you have to stop working you can file for paid family leave. What state is that? Because that doesn't make sense.

>> I know. Paid family leave, that's a, that's a rare event.

>> Yeah, I, I'm not sure I understand that, Larrin, just to let you know. Next question. What about employee-reduced hours? Can you get unemployment for the rest of the income? Okay, that's, that's very, very, very typical in every state. Every state's going to have different rules, by the way. But at least in New York and Massachusetts, yep, you better look it up but they should be able to, yes.

>> You're in New Mexico so that's got to be everywhere.

>> Yeah, yeah it's got to be everywhere then. The person who was working full time and the hours have reduced to part-time and now they have children at home, there is no childcare available. Person has to quit the job to be homeless children. Are they eligible for unemployment benefits?

>> They are going to argue yes. You're going to argue that is voluntary quit with good cause.

>> In fact, I'd say extremely good cause, not just cause. Extremely good cause. It's a great question, thus the.

>> It is, great question.

>> If SSI looks at unearned income and they see this larger amount of money, this will change their SSI amounts? Absolutely. If you're talking about unemployment, yes. If you're talking about stimulus payments, no.

>> Right.

>> Okay--