The Social Security Administration (SSA) has stated that SSI payments will go up for thousands of Americans over 65, disabled people, and children who meet certain income requirements. For more than 50 years, the SSI program has helped people who are having a hard time paying their basic bills by giving them money every month.
Millions of people in the United States still can’t get the financial help this program offers because of strict qualifying requirements and limits.
What is SSI, and who qualifies?
The SSI program is meant to help people who are struggling financially. Seniors, disabled people, and children who can’t meet their basic needs because they don’t have enough money or resources get payments. Many people have found the program to be a lifesaver over the years, but strict requirements have kept a lot of people who need help from getting it.
The increase in SSI payments
Even though Congress put limits on the assets that can be used to get these payments, the SSA has chosen to give thousands of SSI recipients more money. Asset limits haven’t changed since 1989, which makes it hard for many people to save money or plan for their future finances.
As an example, a single person can’t have more than $2,000 in assets, but a pair can only have $3,000. These limits, which were set more than 30 years ago, have not been updated to account for inflation or the current state of the economy.
This makes things very hard for people who depend on SSI. These limits can only be changed by Congress, which is why there are ongoing arguments about the need for an update.
Potential changes to SSI asset limits
Over the years, many different ideas have been put forward to change the limits on SSI assets. For example, in 2003, a congressional committee said the limit should be raised to $3,000 for individuals and $4,500 for couples. They also said that these numbers should be changed to account for inflation. These changes were meant to happen, but they never did.
Recently, talks about raising these limits have started up again. The SSA has said it is ready to work with Congress to look into new ideas that could make it easier for people to get SSI benefits and improve the quality of life for those who get them.
New SSI improvements for 2024
While Congress is the only body that can make big changes, the SSA has made some routine changes to help people with disabilities and make things easier for them. Three big changes have been made to the SSI program this year that should help hundreds of thousands of people.
1Removal of food assistance: The SSA will no longer look at food assistance from family or friends when deciding if an application is eligible under the in-kind support and maintenance (ISM) rules. This will make it possible for more people to get SSI and raise monthly payments for over 90,000 recipients by about $131.
Extension of the rental subsidy exception: The SSA has made the rental subsidy exception available to all SSI applications and recipients across the country. It used to only be available in seven states. This change could make more people eligible and raise monthly payments by about $132 for about 41,000 people.
Adding Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits to the list of types of public assistance that qualify a person for SSI will help the SSA’s description of a household that receives public assistance. Also, it will no longer be necessary for all members of a household to receive public assistance in order for the household to be called a public assistance household.
Together, these two changes could give about 277,000 more SSI payments and make it easier for people who get public aid to report things.
The future of SSI and its beneficiaries
These new rules are a big step forward for people who get SSI. They may get more money and have fewer problems qualifying in some cases. But Congress still needs to look over asset caps and older rules to make the program more in line with how the economy works now.
Also See:- Payment date for the $1,600 stimulus check in Colorado
