SSI

The Social Security Advisory Board (SSAB) Welcomes Three New Members

Henry Aaron of the Brookings Institution, Lanhee Chen of the Hoover Institution and Stanford University, and Alan Cohen of the Center for American Progress, are the three newest members of the SSAB. The Senate confirmed their appointments on September 8, 2014. The SSAB was a 1994 creation of President Clinton and Congress, meant to complement the legislation autonomizing the Social Security Administration (SSA) (the SSA was previously a part of the Department of Health and Human Services). The SSAB is a seven-member strong, bipartisan body tasked with advising the President, Congress, and the Commissioner of Social Security about issues pertaining… Learn More

Does Student Loan Debt Affect Social Security Benefits?

Yes, it can. According to a recent report by the Government Accountability Office (GAO), there was a five-fold increase between 2002 and 2013 in the number of Social Security beneficiaries whose benefits were offset to help pay down their student loan debt. But there’s hope for some of those beneficiaries whose benefits have been garnished for that reason. If a debtor is found to be Totally and Permanently Disabled (TPD), he or she may be eligible for debt forgiveness. While a TPD determination is different than a Social Security Administration (SSA) disability finding, the Department of Education will accept a… Learn More

A Few Notes on Program Integrity and Field Office Hours

The Social Security Administration (SSA) has been busy completing a program integrity workload in the face of funding shortages. The Office of Inspector General (OIG) recently reviewed the SSA’s progress in completing that workload. The report, which focused on Continuing Disability Reviews (CDRs) and non-medical Supplemental Security Income (SSI) redeterminations, found that congressional appropriations have been consistently less than requested since 2002. As a result, program integrity workloads took a nosedive between 2003-2008, but have steadily increased since 2009 thanks to more funding. The report suggests that the SSA misallocated resources in years of fiscal shortages, and did not funnel… Learn More

Problems with the Supplemental Security Income (SSI) Appeals Process

The National Senior Citizens Law Center (NSCLC) is publishing a series of reports illuminating some of the flaws in the SSI appeals process for non-disability matters. The most recent brief outlines the problems SSI recipients face when their benefits are wrongly withheld or reduced and they attempt to appeal without a proper way of representing their side of the case. By law, SSI recipients who are receiving benefits for non-medical reasons must be notified if the Social Security Administration (SSA) intends to withhold or reduce their benefits. Beneficiaries are then legally entitled to appeal the SSA’s decision. However, according to… Learn More

The Supplemental Security Income Restoration Act (SSIRA)

In 2013, Representative Raúl Grijalva of Arizona proposed a bill with number of updates to the Supplemental Security Income (SSI) program. The key features of Grijalva’s bill, the SSIRA, are as follows: -Increasing the SSI resource limit to $10,000 for individuals and $15,000 for couples -Increasing the general income disregard to $110 per month and the earned income disregard to $357 per month -Eliminating the In-Kind Support and Maintenance provision -Eliminating the transfer of assets penalty For reference, “income disregard” refers to the amount of income earned that does not factor into how much SSI a beneficiary receives. “In-Kind Support… Learn More

Cost of Living Adjustment (COLA) for the New Year

The Social Security Administration (SSA) adjusts benefit amounts each year depending upon the cost of living according to the Consumer Price Index (CPI), a yardstick for how much basic goods and services cost the average consumer. The calculation is called a Cost of Living Adjustment (COLA), and it is calculated by comparing the CPI from the third quarters of the previous two years. In other words, the SSA compared the CPI from the third quarters of 2012 and 2013 to arrive at its 2014 figure. The SSA has settled on a 1.5% COLA for the 2014. The COLA will apply… Learn More

A Few Notes on Child Support and Employer Wage Reporting

The Social Security Administration’s (SSA) Office of the Inspector General (OIG) has suggested that the SSA could save tens of millions annually (1) if parents who file for Supplemental Security Income (SSI) for their children were legally required to file for child support as a condition of eligibility, and (2) if the SSI rolls were regularly cross referenced with state child support data in order to root out unreported child support payments that would affect SSI distributions. According to the OIG’s estimates, if 100,000 more individuals per year received child support payments, the SSA could save some $151.2 million annually…. Learn More

State Unemployment Rates and Disability Insurance (DI)

The Social Security Administration’s (SSA) Office of the Inspector General (OIG) studied the relationship between state unemployment rates and the SSA’s disability programs during a 4-year period (2007-2011) and reported its findings. The OIG’s study found that the 27% increase in Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) and Supplemental Security Income (SSI) applications during the 4-year period studied corresponded to a 1% decrease in allowance rates in 8 of the 10 states with the highest unemployment rates. Moreover, allowance rates declined (by 6%) at the hearing level as well. The OIG’s study also found that in the 4-year period studied, there… Learn More

A Few Notes on Rates of Return

Several economists at the Social Security Administration (SSA) conducted a study on how likely various types of Social Security beneficiaries (Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI), Supplemental Security Income (SSI), Disability Insurance (DI), and concurrent beneficiaries) are to return to the program after their benefits have been terminated due to medical improvement. Here’s what they found: -About 30% of SSI recipients whose benefits are terminated due to medical improvement return to the SSI program within about 8 years. -Approximately 22% of concurrent recipients (those who received both SSI and SSDI simultaneously) return to the SSI program within 8 years of benefit… Learn More

The Social Security Administration (SSA) and the President’s 2014 Budget

President Obama has requested $12.457 billion in SSA funding for the coming fiscal year. If authorized in full, which is unlikely, given that for the past two years, Congress has authorized an SSA budget approximately one billion dollars short of what the President has requested, the budget would allow the SSA to correct for some of the cutbacks in employee hours and hiring freezes it has had to enact as a result of insufficient funding. It would also allow the SSA to invest in newer, more efficient technology that could streamline some of the bureaucratic procedures that delay the processing… Learn More

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