We’ve all been working on a “Boomer Primer,” which simply means a list of “things to think about” as we attempt to get a handle on this “aging thing,” but today I’m going to interrupt myself because, as you may have noticed, life is full of interruptions – That’s why we call it “life.”
Today I want to take a brief detour into some things that may do some folks some good right now, and “right now” can be pretty seductive if “right now” isn’t so great; for instance:
More and more of us, or people that more and more of us care about, are facing home foreclosure – It’s terrifying and it’s paralyzing, especially when you’ve been doing everything you can to avoid it and you’ve just hit the proverbial wall; well, what we’ve heard on those TV is promos is true: The worst thing we can do is nothing.
One of the few good things to come out of the last Washington legislative session was the creation of the “Foreclosure Mediation Program,” and it kicked-in on the 22nd of July. It says that lenders have to notify borrowers of the availability of foreclosure counseling and the potential for mediation PRIOR TO foreclosure.
If you’re in this situation, whether you’ve been notified or not, call Washington’s “Foreclosure Prevention Hotline” at 1-877-894-HOME (1-877-894-4663) and do it RIGHT NOW. What (or who) you’ll get on the phone is a housing counselor, or an attorney, who know what they’re talking about, and can help you figure out what you can do, and that may be as far as you need to go.
IF there appears to be a legal issue, you’ll be referred to the “Home Foreclosure Legal Aid Project,” which is a partnership of the Northwest Justice Project and the Washington State Bar Association designed to provide pro bono (FREE!) legal assistance to low- and moderate-income folks and families facing foreclosure – And that means what?
Well, if you’re a household of two, is your annual income at or below $58,800ish? Or, if there are four of you, are you around $89,400? Yeah? Then, you’re in the ballpark for this help; remember, think “mediation.”
And remember, the only way (and the BEST way!) to access this help is to start with the pro’s at the Prevention Hotline, so please do that now, because it’s hard to care about tomorrow when today is terrifying.
Here’s another, meaning yet another scam: Do you find the Wonderful World of Medicare just a touch…confusing? Get a little lost in the labyrinth of Part Thos or Part That? And what about the “Affordable Care Act” and ACO’s and HMO’s and Advantage Plans and and and…? Well, that confusion hasn’t been lost on the Bad Guys, so some folks have gotten calls that say Medicare is phasing out the current Medicare card and issuing new ones. You’re then asked to verify your address, phone number, banking information, Medicare number, blah blah, and…You’ve been had.
“Medicare” will NEVER call you about anything like that – EVER! The “old” Medicare cards aren’t going anywhere, so just utter something rude and hang up. Please, always remember: Medicare will never call you for information that they already have. If you get a call like that, or something “weird” in the mail and you just aren’t sure, call any of the numbers at the end of this column and decent people will help you figure it out, for free.
Here’s another one that came at me, so I’m going to give it to you verbatim:
“’Coaching Into Care’ is a VA program that works with family members or friends who become aware of a Veteran’s post-deployment difficulties, and supports efforts to find help for the Veteran. This is a national clinical service providing information and help to Veterans and the loved ones who are concerned about them. Confidential help is available by calling 1-888-823-7458.”
Now, you know what I know.
Here’s the last one for today:
It seems that, on May 31st of this year, Wells Fargo & Company (Wells Fargo) cut a deal with the U.S. Department of Justice to compensate folks with disabilities who experienced disability discrimination when trying to call Wells Fargo or Wachovia, or visit one of their branches or retail stores or, in any other way, access their services.
The discrimination could take the form of physical inaccessibility at branches, refusal by a branch to provide documents in alternate formats, refusals to accept relay calls, policies that cause barriers to equal access by folks with disabilities, etc, and those are just a few examples. If this happened to you, I’ll bet you know it.
You can file a claim for compensation by sending your name, address, email address and day and evening telephone numbers to WFclaims@usdoj.gov OR leaving a message at 1-866-708-1273 (TTY = 1-866-544-5309), but you have to do this BEFORE January 29, 2012. You have a right.
Enough for one day? OK, me, too, so next week we’ll get back to our “Boomer Primer” thing – HEY: If aging were easy, everybody would do it!
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