Archive for October, 2011

Social Security COLA

Sunday, October 23rd, 2011

I just wanted to make sure that everyone had this information about the Cost of Living Adjustment for Social Security.

EIV will not have the increase listed until January.

You have two options when calculating social security knowing there is a COLA – whichever you decide it is important that you are consistent and use it for ALL recertifications until the information is in EIV.

  • Since the increase is not listed in EIV yet, if the resident agrees with the amount listed on EIV you can use it without including the increase.
  • You can include the increase and calculate income with the increase (effective 1/1/2012) and include this documentation from RHIIP in your file.

You do NOT have to do an interim to include this increase if your recertifications are already done.

No Income Report

Wednesday, October 19th, 2011

The latest notice from HUD regarding EIV, Notice 2011-21, states that the No Income Report has to be run for “ALL” recertification months.

Obviously, the people who write the program and the people who write the regulations don’t always understand each other…this report appears to be meant to be run at the time of annual recertification to confirm whether or not a resident has zero income reported to EIV.  As we know that this report does not mean that a resident has ZERO INCOME it is not as useful as HUD would have us think.

However, we live in a “do as your told” world (especially dealing with HUD and its regulations), so you are required to run the No Income Report on “ALL” recertification months as described in your policies and procedures.  It is important to develop a standard policy about when this report will be run and what you will be required to do with the results.  If you are running the report at a time not included in your P&P you will also run into trouble!

Even though it seems counterproductive, make sure this becomes part of your procedures!

Happy verifying!

EIV…Here to Stay!

Thursday, October 13th, 2011

Shame on me for not writing in so long.  I know there is really no excuse except for the excuse that I make up in my mind and that really won’t satisfy you so I will refrain from presenting it.  WHEW.  All that in one breath!

Anyway, in trying to keep abreast of changes in affordable housing and compliance issues as they arise, I wanted to take just a few minutes and address what I think is a major issue!

EIV is HUGELY important. 

Please make sure that as a community you are effectively using EIV and resolving EIV issues as they come up.  I am finding more and more that EIV is a problem during MORs and that the on-site team is not really sure about how to keep up with requirements.  IT IS IMPORTANT and needs to be a priority.  It is part of our daily schedule now whether we like it or not.  If you aren’t comfortable with it or how to decipher what you can and cannot fix, you should talk to a professional.  Not that I want to use this as a way to advertise myself, but there are lot of consultants out there that can help you.  They can review your policies and procedures, help you manage the process, and make sure that you are being as effecient as you can while still addressing those results in EIV that must be dealt with.

I’ve met a lot of people over the last several months that still don’t understand that EIV is not going anywhere and that we absolutely have to get on board or the train is going to leave without us.  During this time that our contract adminstrators are working out their disagreements with HUD, we have a great opportunity to identify any shortcomings that we have with EIV at our community and resolve them.  The last thing you want is an MOR that reveals a policy or procedure that could have been adequately resolved and addressed long before their visit.

I will work on improving my communication with you.  Forgive my long absence and look for future posts coming soon!