Social Security Administration to expand access to certain benefits through several upcoming changes

Source: NBC News/CNBC

May 10, 2024, 10:20 AM EDT / Source: CNBC.com


The Social Security Administration is set to implement new rules to make it easier for beneficiaries to access certain benefits and increase the payments some may receive. The new changes affect Supplemental Security Income, or SSI, which provides more than 7 million Americans with monthly benefit checks. Those benefits are for seniors ages 65 and up, or adults and children who are disabled or blind, and who have little or no income or resources.

“We already know that the benefit amounts that are available to people receiving SSI are incredibly low,” said Lydia Brown, director of public policy at the National Disability Institute. “They’re not as high as perhaps they could be to fully account for the needs that people have,” Brown said. The maximum federal monthly SSI benefit is currently $943 per eligible individual and $1,415 for an eligible individual and eligible spouse. The changes, which are slated to go into effect Sept. 30, are a “positive move in the right direction,” Brown said.

Updates to definition of public-assistance household

The agency on Thursday announced a new rule to expand the definition of a public-assistance household. Now, households that receive Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, payments and those where not all members receive public assistance will be included.

With the change, more people may qualify for SSI, current beneficiaries may see higher payments and individuals who live in public-assistance households may have fewer reporting requirements, according to the Social Security Administration. The previous policy required all household members to receive public assistance. A public-assistance household will be defined as one with both an SSI applicant or beneficiary, as well as at least one other member who receives one or more forms of means-tested public income maintenance payments.

Read more: https://www.nbcnews.com/business/business-news/social-security-administration-expand-access-certain-benefits-several-rcna151655