JFActivist

RatifyNow Blogswarm for Worldwide Rights of People with Disabilities

From RatifyNow.org:

From Australia ... from the USA ... from India ... from New Zealand ...
from Fiji ... from the Philippines ...

Writers and bloggers from around the world joined together to help celebrate and promote the first legally binding international human rights instrument to protect the rights of people with disabilities -- the international disability rights treaty, called the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD).

They celebrated by writing blog posts for the RatifyNow CRPD Blog Swarm 2008.

What did they write about?  Some of the topics include ...

• The story of one advocate who watched the birth of the CRPD among grassroots advocates with disabilities and others in the 1990s ...
• How the CRPD could deliver new hope for people in India with mental disabilities ...
• How the CRPD represents an evolution from the charity/medical model of disability to the social or human rights-based model ...
• How the CRPD could make travel go a little more smoothly for tourists with disabilities ...
• Why the CRPD matters for people who use personal assistance services or who are seeking the freedom to explore their own sexual expression ...
• An allegorical tale about farmers, spoons, and plows: Why the CRPD is well worth celebrating and why our work isn't done just because the CRPD is about to take full legal force ...
• And more ...

Celebrate and learn about the CRPD through the RatifyNow CRPD Blog Swarm 2008.

Medicare's Financial Woes

From The New York Times:

Medicare's Financial Woes

EDITORIAL

March 28, 2008

Warnings that Medicare spending is growing at an unsustainable rate come with mind-numbing regularity, so it was no surprise that the latest report from the Medicare trustees found that the system is still headed for a financial abyss. Medicare’s problems get scant attention on the campaign trail but will demand strong corrective action by the next president.

The latest report by the trustees, all top officials of the Bush administration, contained the same bad news as last year’s report. The trust fund that pays hospital bills is expected be exhausted by 2019, leaving Medicare to limp along with payroll tax collections that would cover only 78 percent of estimated hospital expenditures....

...Read the rest of the editorial.

Rabbi Landsberg in Chicago Tribune: Time is NOW for ADA Restoration

From The Chicago Tribune (March 31):

Now is the time to act to protect the disabled

By Lynne Landsberg

I've been told that in my former life, I was an effortless multitasker, a fast-talker and a quick thinker. I had speaking engagements across the country and composed my most powerful speeches in airplanes and taxis. In my former life, I was Rabbi Lynne Landsberg. And although I am still Rabbi Lynne Landsberg, the rest has changed.

In 1999, I sustained a traumatic brain injury when my SUV skidded on a patch of black ice and wrapped around a tree.

When I slowly awoke from a six-week coma, I was unable to remember how to live. Through years of intensive rehabilitation, I relearned how to walk, talk, concentrate and more. Now I walk with a cane, speak slowly and require assistance with minor tasks.

Before my brain injury, I belonged to one minority that was strong and articulate—the American Jewish community. Now, I belong to a second minority that is daily the victim of discrimination yet remains powerless and barely heard—people with disabilities...

...Read more.

 

California State Senator Writes Bill to Restrict Restraint & Seclusion of Students with Disabilities

From Protection & Advocacy, Inc. (CA):

State Senator Sheila Kuehl Authors Bill to restrict restraint & seclusion of California pupils in schools

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact: Evelyn Abouhassan
Senior Legislative Advocate
Protection & Advocacy, Inc. (CA)
Phone: (916) 320-7997
E-Mail: Evelyn.Abouhassan@pai-ca.org

Monday, March 24, 2008

A 10 year old boy with significant disabilities was tied to his wheelchair and left in a school van for much of the school day on two separate occasions. One school built a seclusion room where an 8 year old boy with psychiatric and developmental disabilities was routinely locked away. Other children were dragged by their teachers into seclusion areas and barricaded from leaving.

These are just a few of the more serious findings of a year-long study by PAI's investigations unit of the use of restraint and seclusion of children with disabilities in six California public and non-public schools.

Bill introduced on February 21 In response to this report, Senator Sheila Kuehl introduced a bill (SB 1515) that would prohibit the use of seclusion of pupils in California schools and limit the use of their restraint by educational providers to clearly defined emergency situations and only with adequate safeguards.

Educational providers who use behavioral restraint as an intervention would be required to have annual training. The bill also calls for the establishment of a data system to track the use of behavioral restraints.

Senator Kuehl stated, "I was surprised and outraged to discover that these dangerous and damaging practices are still in use in California schools, especially with children who are disabled, and I'm proud to author what will be the first state law in the nation to comprehensively address the situation."

Report publicly available Released in June 2007, the 55 page report concluded that in general, school personnel are not complying with existing regulations, but, the heart of the problem is that current law neither explicitly prohibits these practices in schools nor requires adequate reporting and monitoring of their use. (The report, Restraint and Seclusion in Public

Schools: A Failing Grade, can be read on the web.

Leslie Morrison, head of the PAI investigations unit, said that many interventions involving restraint or seclusion of pupils with disabilities had become routine, instead of being reserved for the rare occasion when a pupil was at imminent risk of causing serious harm to him or herself or others.

ADAPT Celebrates 25 Years of Social Change

From ADAPT:

For Immediate release:                                                                                 
March 24, 2008

For Information contact:                                                                                             
Bob Kafka… (512) 431-4085
Marsha Katz…(406) 544-9504
www.Adapt25.org
www.adaptfunrun.org
www.adapt.org 

ADAPT Celebrates 25 Years of Social Change through Direct Action

“Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful committed citizens can change the world.  Indeed it is the only thing that ever has.”     ~Margaret Mead

Washington, D.C.--- 25 years ago, Rev. Wade Blank, and  Mike Auberger, Co-Directors of the Atlantis Community, a Denver Center for Independent Living, proclaimed their intent to take their local activism, which used direct action to bring about positive changes in the Denver community, to a national level.

Looking at the rag-tag group of two dozen people with disabilities that had shown up for a protest to make Denver mainline buses accessible, nationally renown organizer Shel Trapp shook his head and said “It will never happen.” Yet, over the next 7 years, these three men and that rag tag group, along with dozens more that came to join with them each year, achieved exactly that outcome by forming ADAPT, then known as Americans Disabled for Accessible Public Transit.

25 years later, over the course of a week, from April 26 to May 2, in Washington, D.C., over 1000 people with disabilities and supporters from all over the country will participate in a variety of events to remember ADAPT’s humble beginnings in 1983, celebrate the growth and progress of the disability rights movement during the past 25 years, and set the stage for continuing activism in the years to come.

ADAPT’s humble beginnings grew into a national grassroots activist movement that has changed the face of the disability rights movement.  ADAPT has been memorialized in photos by Tom Olin taken at ADAPT actions over the years. Olin’s photos of ADAPT have appeared in the Smithsonian, are part of the National Civil Rights Museum, and show up continually in national press and media, in scores of books, on posters, and in every corner of the world wide web.

Events occurring during the ADAPT 25 anniversary celebration week include:

* A Sunday, April 27 Fun Run/Roll around Upper Senate Park in Washington, D.C. that is open to the public and serves as combination fundraiser and celebration kick-off.. The National Fun Runner/Roller is Marca Bristo, Executive Director of Access Living in Chicago, IL, and one of the founders and former president of the National Council on Independent Living, and Chair of the National Council on Disability during the Clinton Administration.

• Three days of activism throughout the Washington, D.C. area on April 28-30, including the announcement of the 2008” Ten Worst States in the Provision of Home and Community-based Services."
• An April 30 evening showing at the Holiday Inn Capitol Hotel of  “When You Remember Me,” a made for TV movie starring Kevin Spacey, Ellen Burstyn and Fred Savage. The film chronicles ADAPT co-founder Wade Blank's work freeing young people with disabilities from a Denver nursing home...work that led into the creation of both Atlantis, and then ADAPT.
• A May 1 daylong celebration at the Holiday Inn Capitol Hotel that will include multi-room historical exhibits, multi-media presentations, StoryCorps, The Road to Freedom Bus, an anniversary cook-out and an evening retrospective show with live music, and remarks by former Rep Pat Shroeder (CO) and ADAPT activists from around the country.

The public is invited to participate in the Fun Run/Roll on April 27 or sponsor participants (www.adaptfunrun.org), and to tour the exhibits at the Holiday Inn Capitol Hotel on May 1.

ADAPT crawled up the Capitol steps in 1990 to help push the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) toward passage when it was dangerously bogged down in Congress.  When the ADA passed, lifts on buses were the first change required.  ADAPT has assured that over-the-road buses, along with local transit, had to comply with the ADA.

ADAPT is credited with being the reason for the 2005 passage of Money Follows the Person legislation that allows people with disabilities in nursing homes to move back into the community with their funding  “following” them to provide services and supports in their own homes. Over the years ADAPT efforts nationally have been largely responsible for the federal government moving to “rebalance” the nation’s long-term care funding from being overwhelmingly institutionally biased to a system that will equally support home and community-based services.

ADAPT is currently working for passage of the bi-partisan Community Choice Act (CCA) (S. 799, H.R. 1621), which would completely remove the Medicaid institutional bias and allow people to choose to remain in their own homes with the services and supports they need rather than being forced into nursing homes and other institutions in the first place.

People interested in learning more about ADAPT and/or the 25th Anniversary events can go to the websites above, or call 512-442-0252, or 303-733-9324.

How Tax Credits Benefit People with Disabilities

Guest Column

By Paul Gada

Available Tax Credits Can Help Individuals with Disabilities

Welcome to the second in a series of columns discussing timely tax issues. The initial column looked at the tax rebate and how to make sure you take the steps needed to get your rebate.  But, rebates aren’t the only way to save on taxes.

In fact, if you are looking for a real world example of the principle of “give and take,” look no further than our federal tax code. Our tax system both takes and returns our tax dollars (through various credits, deductions and exemptions) in a way that is seemingly designed only to confuse the average taxpayer.

The good news is that there are a number of tax credits that are available only to taxpayers with lower incomes or disabilities. The following—the Earned Income Tax Credit and the Saver’s Credit—are two in particular you should know about.

Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC). The EITC was the subject of a reader’s question submitted through this blog.

If you or your spouse earned any taxable income for the year, you may be eligible for the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC). The most appealing feature of the EITC is that it is a refundable tax credit. This means that if your credit amount is higher than your tax bill, you can actually get the unused part of the credit back as part of a tax refund.

The EITC is part of a federal tax program designed to help low-income workers and families by offsetting the burden of Social Security taxes and providing an incentive to work. Even if you don’t earn enough to owe federal income taxes you may get a refund from the IRS if you qualify for the EITC. If you qualify, it could be worth up to $4,716 for the 2007 tax year.

Even though it sounds too good to be true, it isn’t. In 2007, more than 22.4 million taxpayers received over $43.7 billion in earned income credits by filing their 2006 federal income tax returns. Unfortunately, the IRS estimates that approximately one in four people who could have been eligible failed to claim the EITC.

According to the IRS, the main reason people fail to claim this important tax credit is because they simply don’t know about it. To help solve this problem, here is what you need to know about the EITC.

If you or your spouse were employed for at least part of 2007, you may be eligible for the EITC based on these general requirements:

2007 EITC Eligibility
Maximum Earnings
   
Single               Married Filing Jointly     Qualifying Children         
$12,590             $14,590                            None
$33,241             $35,241                            One
$37,783             $39,783                            Two or more                  

Additionally, to be eligible, your maximum investment income cannot exceed $2,900.   
 

The amount of the EITC itself depends on your income and family size. For 2007, the maximum credit amounts are as follows:

2007 Maximum EITC Amounts

Number of Qualifying Children                Maximum Credit
Two or more                                            $4,716
One                                                         $2,853
None                                                       $428

Based on tables provided by the IRS, the maximum credit amounts are phased in from the first dollar earned. The EITC phases out completely when the earning levels mentioned earlier are reached.

When figuring out your EITC, benefits you receive under an employer’s disability retirement plan (providing pensions to workers who lose their jobs because of disability) are considered earned income until you reach minimum retirement age. According to the IRS, minimum retirement age is considered the earliest age at which you could have received a pension if you were not disabled. The taxable disability payments you claim on line 7 of either Form 1040 or Form 1040A count toward qualifying for the EITC.

However, you should be aware that benefits such as Social Security Disability Insurance, SSI or military disability pensions are not considered earned income that qualify for the EITC. The same is true for payments you received from a disability insurance policy on which you paid the premiums. You or your spouse must have earned income to qualify for the EITC.

There are several ways to determine EITC eligibility and the actual amount of the credit. The hard way is to work through the worksheets and tables provided in the instructions to IRS Forms 1040, 1040A or 1040EZ. An easier way is to use the EITC Assistant tools provided by the IRS that walk you through the entire process. If you elect to do so on your tax return, the IRS can also figure out your EITC for you. If none of these choices work for you, seeking professional tax help is highly recommended because of complexities involved.

Saver’s Credit. For those struggling with the financial hardships caused by a permanent disability, putting away money for retirement may seem like a tough thing to do. However, the reality is that you will need money in later years as well (perhaps even more so than today).

The good news is that there is a way for the federal government to add to your private retirement nest egg through a special tax credit called the Saver’s Credit. This credit is available only to lower-income taxpayers.

Based on the most recent information available, taxpayers claimed more than $900 million in Saver’s Credits on nearly 5.3 million individual income tax returns. The average savings for those filing jointly was $216.

Provided you or your spouse have any earned income, the Saver’s Credit helps offset part of the first $2,000 workers voluntarily contribute to IRAs and to 401(k) plans and similar workplace retirement programs. This credit can be claimed by:

•    Married couples filing jointly with incomes up to $52,000 in 2007 or $53,000 in 2008;
•    Heads of household with incomes up to $39,000 in 2007 or $39,750 in 2008; and
•    Married individuals filing separately and singles with incomes up to $26,000 in 2007 or $26,500 in 2008.

The maximum Saver’s Credit is half of the first $2,000 saved in a retirement account. This means a tax savings up to $1,000 for a single taxpayer earning $15,500 in 2007 and up to $2,000 for married couples earning $31,000 or less. This savings is in addition to any other tax savings for contributing toward retirement.

It is important to note that the Saver’s Credit amount decreases when earnings are above $15,500 for single taxpayers and $31,000 for married couples. This credit is phased out completely above the income levels listed earlier (e.g., $52,000 for married couples in 2007).

To figure out and claim the Saver’s Credit, use IRS Form 8880, Credit for Qualified Retirement Savings Contributions.

Other tax breaks for low-income taxpayers. Depending on your particular situation, there may be many more tax breaks that can take the sting out of filing your taxes and even help your financial situation in the end. To take full advantage of these tax breaks, consider seeking out professional tax assistance or tax preparation software that can help walk you through filling out your tax return.

I plan to contribute a guest column each of the next few weeks for the AAPD blog on tax issues impacting individuals with disabilities. I welcome your questions as possible topics to cover in these columns. Please post your comments here.

Happy tax season!

~Paul Gada is a tax attorney and the personal financial planning director for Allsup, a national provider of Social Security, health care and financial services for those with disabilities.

Copyright, Allsup Inc., used with permission.

Nursing Homes Report Using Less Physical Restraints

From the Associated Press:

Nursing Homes Cut Back on Restraints

By KEVIN FREKING

WASHINGTON -- The use of physical restraints on nursing home patients declined nearly 40 percent nationally in recent years as the federal government, states and the nursing home industry placed greater emphasis on eliminating what once was a common practice.

Overall, about 5.9 percent of 1.5 million long-term patients were physically restrained repeatedly in 2006. That's a drop from 9.7 percent in 2002...

...Read more.

Why the United States Should Ratify the UN CRPD

In response to the RatifyNow "blogswarm" invitation, Erin Martz has contributed the following piece on the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.

Guest Column
by Erin Martz, Ph.D., C.R.C.
Rehabilitation Counseling Program
University of Memphis

Why the United States should ratify the United Nations Convention on the Rights of People with Disabilities (UN CRPD):

The United States (U.S.) was viewed as one of the leaders in disability rights by the passage of the Americans with Disability Act (ADA) of 1990 and its subsequent struggles to implement the ADA.

However, if the U.S. fails to ratify the UN CRPD, I believe that the U.S. will no longer be on the cutting edge of disability rights. While some may argue that the ADA is sufficient, I would assert that the 50 articles of the UN CRPD are much more comprehensive in nature and are sorely needed, due to the comprehensive nature of the stigma, negative stereotyping, and attitudinal barriers that are created and maintained by the general population. Discrimination fundamentally occurs as a reaction to and intolerance of the existence of disabilities. Thus, the CRPD is needed as a clear statement of rights of a discriminated group.

The largest minority in the U.S. is people with disabilities. Therefore, let us ratify the UN CRPD in the U.S., in order to protect the rights and encourage the growth of individuals with disabilities into their full potential as humans.

Put Money Back in Your Pocket with the Economic Stimulus Payment!

From the National Women's Law Center:

Starting in May 2008, more than 130 million households will receive an economic stimulus payment from the Internal Revenue Service. Most people don't need to do anything special to get a payment; they can just file their taxes as usual and the IRS will do the rest.

But millions of people who are usually exempt from filing tax returns - including low-income retirees, disabled veterans, and low-wage earners - must file a return in order to receive their payment.

The National Women's Law Center hosted a webinar on the economic stimulus payments, which shared information on:

•     Who's eligible for the payments
•     How much the payments can be worth
•     What individuals and families need to do to apply for the payments
•     When individuals and families will receive the payments
•     Tools that can help organizations educate the public

You can watch a recording of the webinar (uncaptioned), or download the slides presented.

In addition, numerous resources discussed during the webinar are available for download on their website.

 

Getting Out of a Nursing Home Just Got Harder

 

From the The Modesto-Bee:

(Guest Opinions Column Contribution)

Getting out of a nursing home just got harder
By MIKE ERVIN
McCLATCHY-TRIBUNE

The Bush administration is going after poor people who want to get out of nursing homes.

Earlier this month, the Bush administration put forth new restrictions on Medicaid funding. (In California, Medicaid is called Medi-Cal.) The restrictions are in what the government calls "targeted case management." This area covers people who use various federal programs and who need help coordinating these services.

One group of Medicaid recipients on which this surely will have a severe negative impact are nursing home residents trying to transition into community living support situations...

...Read more.

~Ervin is a disability-rights activist with ADAPT (www.adapt.org).