By Michael J. Searcy
Twenty-five dollars. That was the tiny amount that caused a friend’s daughter to lose the government benefits she was receiving for her special needs.
When you are a parent or caregiver to a child with special needs, navigating the system alone is a challenge. As hard as you try to do everything right, sometimes a small mistake can have lasting repercussions. In this instance, a friend set up an account for her daughter and paid a $25 fee to get the account started. She then transferred $2,000 into the account, the legal limit allowed in her daughter’s case, so they could manage her finances from this account. She was devastated to find out that the $25 had been reported as causing her daughter’s account to exceed her limit and therefore lose her benefits.