A lot of the time, we think that everything about Social Security Benefits can be summed up in one simple idea: how pensioners get their monthly payments.
The government agency in charge of the seniors’ program, however, is the Social Security Administration (SSA). It also runs other projects that are related.
There has been one main goal since 1935: to stop poverty, which can come in many forms and situations.
At the moment, SSA deals with this problem by setting up programs that meet the needs of certain groups of Americans whose needs, if not met, could push them into poverty and force them to depend on monthly Social Security payments. These are the main goals for each one:
- Retirement Insurance: Attempts to prevent poverty when persons reach an advanced age that makes it difficult to obtain employment.
- Disability Insurance: It intends to offer Social Security benefits to workers deemed disabled or blind and will have their income reduced or eliminated.
- Survivors program: Unlike retirement or disability insurance, the strategy is directed away from the worker and toward his family. The critical issue is about providing aid when a worker dies and his dependents (spouses, children, and parents) are left without financial support.
- Supplemental Security Income (SSI): It may appear to be a hybrid of retirement and disability insurance because it also targets senior citizens and disabled people. However, it differs from other programs: first, it includes children, and second, candidates must have a low monthly income and little or no assets.
In spite of the fact that they all aim at different groups, the Social Security Administration still does not pay enough attention to some people and situations.
It will take a long time for them to reach a national level, where they can be fixed by making changes to an existing program or making a new one.
What are the Social Security benefits that will change?
The governor of California, Gavin Newsom, signed AB2906 into law. This law tries to meet the needs of foster children by making better use of the Social Security benefits they receive.
Foster children are not often talked about in articles about Social Security benefits. They can get survivorship and SSI benefits, though. It depends on the specifics of each case.
The problem comes up when you think about how this small group does not know how to get paid by the government or be responsible for their own money.
They do not know how to spend the money they are given and can not figure out how to rank it so that each program can reach its goals.
Because of this, the county facilities that care for the kids act as “representative payees” and get the Social Security check that is meant for them.
At first, the money was put into projects that would make the kids’ lives better. However, this is also an example of unfairness since there is no guarantee that the kids will get all of the money that was given to them.
To fix this problem, California law requires counties to set up interest-bearing accounts to store Social Security benefits so that children can use them as they grow up to help them make the transition.
The test also looks at how quickly the benefits can be used if they are needed for important costs that are specific to the beneficiary, like medical bills, schooling, job training, or personal growth.
The law also makes sure that young people between the ages of 18 and 21 (also called “nonminor dependents”) get enough information from their counties about how the Social Security Administration and Social Security Benefits work.
This way, they can stay eligible for Social Security programs for as long as possible while also learning the skills they need to become financially independent and have a better time adjusting to adulthood.
