Both the Essential Plan and Qualified Health Plans have expanded the citizenship/immigration criteria to include individuals granted deferred action through the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program. Essential Plan’s inclusion of DACA recipients is effective August 1, 2024, and Qualified Health Plans inclusion will be November 1, 2024.The expansion allows DACA recipients with higher incomes [...]

Monday July 22, 2024On Friday, due to the widespread global IT outage, some government agencies were impacted but now have resumed normal operations.  Please see links for current agency status.Social Security: https://www.ssa.gov/agency/emergency/Currently all Social Security offices are open in NYC.NYCHA: https://x.com/NYCHA/status/1814324890272444758.CCC and MyNYCHA are now fully operational again.NYC Human Resources Administration:The ACCESS HRA Client Portal and [...]

For many years the Benefits Plus Leaning Center has offered an Immigrants’ Eligibility Chart which is designed for social service professionals working with individuals who are non-citizens.  The chart contains the immigration criteria for over 25 public benefit programs and is newly designed to identify programs that provide cash, food, health, etc.The chart, as well as [...]

Effective April 1, 2024, the income limit for the Essential Plan (EP) will be increasing from 200% to 250% of the Federal Poverty Level (FPL).  This new, expanded, coverage will be known as “EP 200-250.”Individuals with incomes between 200-250% of the FPL, who were previously eligible for both Cost Sharing Reductions and the Premium Tax Credit [...]