The Supplemental Security Income (SSI) program is getting changes from the Social Security Administration that will help poor people by making it easier for them to get help with food and making the qualifying process easier.
As of Monday, food assistance from friends, family, or people in the community will not be counted as income for SSI reasons.
In the past, food assistance was part of the agency’s estimates for In-Kind Support and Maintenance, which meant that an applicant’s benefits could be cut or denied.
By getting rid of this calculation, more than 90,000 recipients will see their monthly payments go up by an average of $131, and more people will be able to join the program.
SSI is a program that helps people who are disabled or old and have very little money or assets every month based on their needs. “SSI is a program for the poorest of the poor,” Commissioner Martin O’Malley said in a talk.
“It is based on income, and you have to make very little money to be eligible.”
Changes to the SSI program
The program, which began in the 1970s, is very important for people who are having a hard time because they do not have a lot of money or resources.
People can get SSI if they make no more than $1,971 a month, but the income limits are higher for couples and parents asking for their children.
When figuring out who is eligible, other kinds of income are also taken into account, like disability benefits or pensions.
In 2024, the most a person can get from SSI each month is $943, and the most a couple can get is $1,415, but many people get less based on their income and where they live.
“Millions of Americans depend on it,” O’Malley said.
“And we just made changes to the rules that made things better for all of those people who got help and made it possible for many more people who could have been helped but did not before to apply for the program.”
These changes make sure that getting private food assistance while applying for or getting SSI will no longer affect how much money they get in benefits.
The goal is to make running the program easier and less stressful for both the office and the people who benefit from it.
O’Malley also talked about how hard it is to stay eligible for income-based programs like SSI after getting a job. “We need people to be able to work.” We want people to be able to take care of themselves.
On the other hand, if you make too much money and want to get a program like SSI, you quickly lose your status.
The people who work in this field to help people are very, very happy that we will no longer count food benefits that you may get if you live with someone else or in a family.
O’Malley agreed that these limits made things harder for Social Security workers, whose job it was to check on people’s living situations, rent payments, and food assistance.
Getting rid of this rule will make it easier for applicants and make things easier for the people who work at the agency.
Another big change affects the money that is given to renters. Starting Monday, the Social Security Administration is letting SSI applicants and users from all over the country use a certain rental subsidy exception.
This exception was only available in Connecticut, New York, Vermont, Illinois, Indiana, Wisconsin, and Texas before. This change will likely make monthly payouts go up by an average of $132 for about 41,000 people and make more people eligible.
The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) payments are the subject of a third update. The office will now look at SNAP as well as other public assistance programs when deciding whether to grant SSI.
In real life, this means that the agency will no longer need all members of a household to be getting welfare in order to decide if the household is eligible for public assistance.
About 277,000 people will be helped by this expansion because it will increase their monthly SSI payments and make it easier for people living in welfare homes to file their taxes.
The new rule says that if someone is living in a household that gets public assistance, the Social Security Administration will think that they are not getting money from other people in the household, which would be considered income.
This change will make it possible for more people to get help from the program and will also raise the amount of money some people get.
