Category Archives for Disability

Social Security changes expand access to SSI

Published in RINewsToday on May 20, 2024

Last week, the Social Security Administration (SSA) announced good news for Supplemental Security recipients.  The federal agency published a final rule on April 19, 2024, to – “Expand the Definition of a Public Assistance Household.” The regulation announces one of several updates to Supplemental Security Income (SSI) regulations that will help people receiving and applying for SSI.  

SSA continuously examines programmatic policy and makes regulatory and sub-regulatory changes as appropriate. SSI is a means-tested program providing monthly payments to adults and children with a disability or blindness, and to adults aged 65 and older. These benefits help pay for basic needs like rent, food, clothing, and medicine. People applying for and receiving SSI must meet eligibility requirements, including income and resource limits.

According to SSA’s Office of the Chief Actuary, once this rule is implemented and the effects have stabilized, in fiscal year 2033 its estimated that roughly 277,000 federal SSI recipients (4 percent of all SSI recipients) will have an increase in monthly payments compared to current rules, and an additional 109,000 individuals (1% increase) will receive Federal SSI payments who would not have been eligible under current rules.  As of December, 2022, there were approximately 30,500 people in Rhode Island receiving SSI benefits. 

SSA expands access to SSI program

Under SSA’s final rule (20 CFR Part 416), beginning September 30, 2024, the agency will expand the definition of a public assistance household to include households receiving Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) payments and households where not all members receive public assistance. The expanded definition will allow more people to qualify for SSI, and increase some SSI recipients’ payment amounts. It also reduces reporting burdens for individuals living in public assistance households.

The SSA revised rule also changes the definition of a public assistance household when determining who in a household receives public assistance. The new rule defines a public assistance household as one that has both an SSI applicant or recipient, and at least one other household member who receives one or more of the listed means-tested public income-maintenance (PIM) payments (the any other definition).

The previous policy required all household members to receive public assistance. This change benefits SSI recipients living in households where only some members receive public assistance.

“I’m committed to making systemic changes to help people access the critical benefits they need, including SSI,” said Martin O’Malley, Commissioner of Social Security, in a May 9, 2024 statement announcing the release of the final rule. “By simplifying our policies and including an additional program geared towards low-income families, such as [those receiving] SNAP, we are removing significant barriers to accessing SSI. These changes promote greater equity in our programs.”

SNAP is the first PIM benefit added to the agency’s public assistance household definition since it was established in 1980. This change helps ensure the agency’s policies better represent the current landscape of means-tested programs in the United States, according to SSA.

These changes are key because if an applicant or recipient is determined to be living in a public assistance household, the agency assumes they are not receiving assistance from other household members that would otherwise be counted as income. This will allow more people to qualify for SSI and in some cases, receive a higher SSI payment.

Thumbs Up from aging network

“I commend the Biden administration for this needed expansion of the SSI program.  It is a recognition that those in the greatest economic need in our nation need help.  By expanding the definition of a public assistance household, it will not only allow more people to qualify for SSI but can also increase some existing SSI recipient’s payment amounts,” says Robert B. Blancato, Executive Director of the Washington, DC-based National Association of Nutrition and Aging Services Program, noting that programs such as SSI and SNAP are safety net programs for those who are truly [in need].  

“It is disingenuous to lose qualification for one safety net program because of being eligible for another.  The role of the federal government is to assist those most in need while minimizing bureaucratic red tape.  This final rule shows a level of compassion we need to see more of in federal policy,” adds Blancato.

According to Maria Freese, Senior Legislative Representative at the Washington, DC-based National Committee to Preserve Social Security and Medicare, this new rule will take an important step toward simplifying some of the most complicated and burdensome rules governing the SSI program. SSI’s in-kind support and maintenance (ISM) rules reduce benefits dollar-for-dollar for the value of support from family or friends, such as a place to sleep, or help with groceries, up to one-third of benefits. SSI is the only federal program to reduce benefits in this manner. “While fewer than 1 in 10 SSI beneficiaries receive ISM, the current ISM rules make the program more complicated for nearly every SSI beneficiary.  SSA is required to ask detailed, personal, and complicated questions concerning living arrangements, other household members and budgeting, not only once but repeatedly as family circumstances change,” she says.

Freese added: “Groups living together who qualify as ‘public assistance households’ are exempt from these reporting requirements, but the previous definition, which required that every member of the household receive public assistance, limited the ability of low-income beneficiaries to take advantage of the exemption.  The new rule requires only one SSI beneficiary and one additional member of the household be a recipient of public assistance, and expands the qualifying programs to include the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP, formerly food stamps).” 

“This new rule will lessen hardship for struggling, low-income families, simplify the administration of the SSI program and lower costs and staff time for the Social Security Administration, which has been chronically underfunded.  It represents good public policy, and reflects well on an agency working hard to provide the benefits working families deserve,” notes Freese.

According to Nancy Altman, President and CEO of the Washington, DC-based Social Security Works, this rule is an important step towards improving the Supplemental Security Income program (“SSI”). “Currently, SSI forces the most disadvantaged Americans to jump through numerous time-consuming, complicated, and burdensome hoops simply to get below-poverty level benefits. Simplifying the numerous burdensome requirements will not only ease the lives of those whom government is intended to serve, it will also reduce administrative costs,” she says. 

“Ultimately, Congress needs to act to improve SSI, as well as adequately fund the SSA so it can hire and train enough staff to properly administer the program. In the absence of action from Congress, the Biden administration is doing what it can on its own, including this and other rule changes, says Altman.

Altman suggests that if Congress and the Social Security Administration truly want to save administrative costs and provide more accurate and timely payment amounts, more rules like these should be adopted and the laws governing SSI should be updated and simplified.” 

With Social Security’s long-term purchasing power dwindling and heightening financial uncertainty for recipients, the League supports updating the definition of public assistance for beneficiaries receiving SSI, says Shannon Benton, Executive Director of the Alexandria, Virginia-based Senior Citizens League. “’The increased inability of seniors to make ends meet remains a pressing concern of The Senior Citizens League, and it should also be a pressing concern of Congress,” she says.

Adds Associate Director Kathleen Holt, of the Connecticut-based Center for Medicare Advocacy, “The expanded definition of ‘public assistance household’ is a thoughtful, focused way to ensure the dignity and needs of individuals in a residence are upheld.”

For more information on the SSI program, including who is eligible and how to apply, visit https://www.ssa.gov/ssi.

To read the final rule “Expand the Definition of a Public Assistance Household,” visit  https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2024/04/19/2024-08364/expand-the-definition-of-a-public-assistance-household.

For further details about the final rule, contact Tamara Levingston, Office of Income Security Programs, 6401 Security Blvd., Robert M. Ball Building, Suite 2512B, Woodlawn, MD 21235, 410-966-7384.

The Best of…AARP Report Sheds Light on the Needs of Older Disabled Persons

Published May 26, 2012, Pawtucket Times   

           AARP, a Washington, DC-based aging advocacy group, generates a new report to provide direction to the nation’s policy makers as to how to keep America’s age 50 and over disabled population independent and in  control of their daily lives. 

           According to the latest AARP study, lack of affordable services, a fragmented delivery system and the caregiver’s limited knowledge of the delivery system, are barriers that keep age 50 and over Americans with disabilities from living active and independent lives. 

           The AARP report, “Beyond 50 2003: A Report to the Nation on Independent Living and Disability,” incorporates data obtained from the first ever national survey of Americans age 50+ with disabilities, documenting the gap between what they say, need, and what is available to them. 

           “Long-term independence for persons with disabilities is an increasingly achievable social goal, AARP Policy and Strategy Director John Rother says in a written statement released with this report.  “But it will require time and the collective creativity of the public and private sectors,” he added. 

           “Meanwhile, even minor changes can lead – at least in the short-term – to important life-style improvements for those with disabilities today,“ Rother said.  On the other hand, long-term improvements will require fundamental policy changes.

           “As the influx of Boomers enters their 50’s and 60’s, they will bring their attitudes of competitive consumerism to health care delivery, and will demand greater choice and control of available services,” explained Rother.   “The good news is that there is time to prepare for those demands, he said.  “Along with improvements in medicine and health, we are seeing some declines in disability.  New technologies are also extending Americans’ years of independence.”

           According to the AARP report, 46 percent of the over 50 respondents with disabilities (including nearly 60 percent of those between the ages of 50 and 64) believe that having more control over decisions about services and the help they need would bring a major improvement in the quality of their lives.   However, they report that their greatest fear is loss of independence and mobility.

           The AARP report, the third in a series of comprehensive studies on the status of Americans over age 50, found that 51percent of older persons with disabilities are managing independently; 49 percent are not receiving any regular help with daily activities, such as cooking, bathing and shopping.  More than half of those with disabilities (53 percent) tell researchers that they were unable to do something they needed or wanted to do in the past month – quite often basic tasks such as household chores or exercise.

           Most (88 percent) of the assistance the older disabled persons reported receiving is volunteer assistance from family or other informal caregivers.  Sixty one percent strongly prefer this type of assistance with everyday tasks, while only one out of three uses any community-based service. 

            The AARP report found that independence, for older disabled persons, can be easily enhanced by using assistive equipment (such as walkers and wheelchairs) and new technologies that are now more widely available.  However, caregiver assistance with daily activities will take more time and resources.   The researchers estimate that as many as three million persons over age 50 with disabilities (almost 25 percent) need more assistance than they receive now with daily activities. 

           Furthermore, the report said that persons 50 and older with disabilities place inadequate health insurance on the top of their list of issues that are not being adequately addressed. Specifically, Medicare coverage still does not pay for prescription drugs and assistive equipment is not covered by some health insurance.

           Adds Rhode Island AARP Director Kathleen Connell, many of the issues addressed in the newly released AARP report are not just about today’s persons with disabilities, but about all of us, who if we live long lives (and longevity is increasing) are likely to face disability.

           “This is about long-term independence and not long term care, which refers not just to what we need during the most vulnerable and frailest stages of our disability, as ‘long term care’ suggests, but to what we want during what, in most cases, is a longer, more functional stage of disability,” Connell tells All About Seniors.

           While minor fixes would make a difference, other improvements will require longer-term fundamental changes and more public dollars.  Based on the “Beyond 50” findings, AARP has outlined a number of policy changes for making critical long-term improvements:

  • Older persons with disabilities must be insured against the high costs of accessing long-term supportive services.  Ways must be found to share the risk of these unpredictable costs more widely among public and private sources. 
  • Public funding for long-term supportive services needs to be reoriented toward more options for home and community-based care. The nation also must provide more options for “consumer-direction” in publicly funded programs.
  •  Communities need to be made more physically accessible for more people with disabilities.
  •  Information and services need to be more navigable for those who are trying to learn more about available long-term services and whether or not they are eligible.
  •  America’s health care system must adjust its focus to enhance functioning and health-related quality of life, not just provide acute and curative care.

             The “Beyond 50” report found that people with disabilities 50 and older give their community poor grades (between C+ and B- in their efforts of making it possible for them to live independently. In many communities, the researchers say, that public transportation is oftentimes rated poorly.

          The researchers say that the troubling findings reveal that the nation is ill-prepared to meet the calls of age 50 and over persons with disabilities for more control and independence in the lives.    

           AARP’s report is a wake up call for state and national policy makers who will be charged with making sound policy decisions for a grayingAmericawith disabilities.  If policy makers heed the recommendations of AARP’s report, systemic changes may well give dignity to millions of older persons with disabilities who only want to remain independent and control of their daily lives.  Just like the rest of us.

           Herb Weiss is a Pawtucket-based writer covering aging, health care and medical issues.  The article was published in May 2003 in the Pawtucket Times.  His articles also appear in state and national publications. He can be reached at hweissri@aol.com.