You may have heard about the change to Social Security for at least six months now. Because of the yearly cost-of-living adjustment that the Social Security Administration (SSA) made and put into effect in October, the plan is to raise the program’s benefits.
This change is not one of the most well-known, but many journalists and other interested parties are interested in it because it could have an effect on the total budget.
In the same way, it is important for public policy reasons to think about the problems that could happen in the future with the Social Security system’s finances.
As time goes on, the Social Security Administration is always making changes to make better use of the few resources it has and get ready for a time when those resources will be even more limited.
Here are some changes that SSA has made that may have an effect on the people who get benefits from it.
What will Social Security do to reduce the customer burden?
This change will affect people who are new to getting Supplemental Security Income.
At the moment, if an American thinks he is having a hard time with money, he has to show that he meets the SSA’s requirements for the program. Those standards will mostly ask the person to do the following:
- Is 65 years old or older.
- His income is not above $1,971 for individuals or $2,915 for a couple.
- Has assets of no more than $2,000 for individuals and $3,000 for a couple.
Another thing was that if the person got any other help or resources, like staying with someone or getting extra government benefits.
These were called “In-Kind Support and Maintenance” (ISM), and they reduced the amount of money the Social Security Administration gave them.
Food will no longer be part of the ISM, which is the biggest change. This will make it easier to figure out how much a potential beneficiary will need.
It will also increase their total benefit amount and let more people who already get benefits like SNAP (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program) apply for and get an SSI check.
How will Social Security expand its rental subsidy?
This is another big change for people who get SSI. In the past, Social Security thought that any benefit linked to rental assistance, like a discount rate, would lower the amount that people who applied for SSI got.
This was true for most of the United States except for Connecticut, Illinois, Indiana, New York, Texas, Vermont, and Wisconsin.
All SSI recipients in every state can now lower their rent benefits to get a bigger monthly benefit, or a new applicant’s ISM will go down, which will give him more chances to join the program.
What will Social Security do to simplify applications?
Three more changes are being made by SSA to make its processes even more efficient. The first is to get rid of the need for signatures on 13 forms and use digital signatures instead of paper ones on over 30 forms.
The second choice is to apply for SSI benefits through i Claim, an online system that makes the process easier by asking simple language questions and walking you through each step.
The last change is an update on the situation with the household that gets public aid. It used to be that everyone in the family had to get some kind of public assistance for it to be considered a public assistance household.
These days, only two people need to have that help, like one with SSI and the other with SNAP (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program).
If someone lives in a home that gets public assistance, it is assumed that they do not get any other help from anyone else in the household, so their ISM would be lower. This change raises the amount that person could receive.
