Statement on Patrice: The Movie and SSI Enhancements Rolling Out
Reading Time: 2 MinutesLast Updated: September 30, 2024
All of us at the Social Security Administration want to recognize Patrice Jetter, Garry Wickham, and everyone involved in Patrice: The Movie, a documentary that focuses on the couple’s concerns about losing their disability benefits if they got married.
Our agency stands ready to assist Congress as it works to address outdated laws and to strengthen programs like Supplemental Security Income (SSI) that serve millions of people with disabilities throughout the country. Enacted 50 years ago, the SSI program provides payments to people with disabilities and older adults who have limited income and resources.
Congress imposes limits on SSI applicants and recipients, including asset limits for individuals and married couples that have not been adjusted since 1989. As applied today, that partial 1989 update can make it difficult for SSI recipients to save money and can cause other hardships, as the movie emphasizes.
The movie also highlights how changes to the asset limit and related marriage rules can only be made by Congress because those have been set by statute. For decades, there has been Congressional interest in updating SSI asset limits. Back in 2003, for example, a committee in Congress wanted to update limits (from $2,000 to $3,000 for individuals and from $3,000 to $4,500 for couples) and index those amounts for inflation, and there have been more recent legislative efforts as well. Again, we stand ready to provide expertise to Congress as it discusses and debates this issue.
While only Congress can make some changes, to the extent possible by law SSA is taking steps to update SSI policies administratively to simplify rules, reduce burdens, and better support people with disabilities. For example, as announced earlier this year, today is the effective date for three SSI enhancements that are estimated to lead to new or increased SSI payments for hundreds of thousands of Americans with disabilities.
- The agency no longer includes food assistance from friends and family in calculating eligibility (in-kind support and maintenance). This could increase monthly SSI payments by about $131 per month for over 90,000 people and allow more people to qualify for SSI benefits.
- The agency expands the rental subsidy exception to SSI applicants and recipients nationwide, which was previously applied in only seven states. This could increase monthly SSI payments by about $132 per month for about 41,000 people and allow more people to qualify.
- The agency expands the definition of a “public assistance household” by adding Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits to the types of public assistance listed and by no longer requiring that all household members receive public assistance to be considered a public assistance household. These two changes could result in increased SSI payments to about 277,000 people and allow more people to qualify, while also reducing reporting burdens for individuals living in public assistance households.
Did you find this Information helpful?
About the Author
Comments
Leave a Comment
Please review our Comment Policy before leaving a comment. For your safety, please do not post Personally Identifiable Information (such as your Social Security Number, address, phone number, email address, bank account number, or birthdate) on our blog.
Karla A.
Blindness isn’t always a physical problem with the eyes either. With traumatic brain injury a person is left unable to read or write. There’s a constant ringing making hearing nearly impossible which causes loss of balance. All of this is disabling. Depth perception is out of the question. The whole world moves as if you’re on a boat at sea. Yet this is considered to be a condition SSI says I can work, and function with daily. I have letters from my concussion and vision specialist saying I need a scribe, and audiobooks. I can’t even fill out paperwork on my own. Much less find a case manager to get help. No workers in the offices here. Told to call for an appointment. Lucky if I ever get a call back. All my documents disappear after being dropped off so I can’t get assistance anywhere else either since they all have to be original documents every time these offices want copies. How many original copies do you think a person gets?
Margaret
To resolve this poverty for so many disabled us citizens should be at the top of the list of our government. It is so sad to have to live with income so low that you have to choose to either pay your power bill or buy food to keep from starving to death. The maximum income allowed for ssi disability is WAY to low to start with, period! Each person on this earth is an individual and should have their own individual income. No one person should be penalized because of another persons income. The cost of living is ridiculously high and out of control! Especially for low income households or anyone on SSI or disability of any kind. The laws that apply for couples are so wrong. These laws go against the way God expects people to live. The bible states that you should not be intimate without being married, therefore the government is forcing couples to live wrong in the eyes of God AND live in poverty at the same time. *Which is so disgraceful and disappointing. Plus the fact that our government will give freely to other countries and even illegals, but will not address the poverty that our own disabled US citizens have been dealing with for so many years is a disgrace to humanity. Another thing that should be addressed in this matter is how humiliating it is to call the social security office to discuss a problem or get information about your case and be treated like trash, or like you are a liar. It is hard enough to be forced to live in poverty without the hateful attitudes of some of their employees. (Government, Please, please work harder and screen the people you choose to employ to deal with the disabled us citizens about their government benefits). No one should have to deal with the worst of attitudes from them when they’re already dealing with so much due to the poverty they’re already forced to live in.
Karen
I agree with you 100% I take care of my husband who has severe Dementia cannot walk cannot talk hardly anymore and his health is getting worse daily, I try my best to take care of him and I don’t know why I can’t get faster help and resolve getting money to live on. I am already retired and on Social security at such a low monthly payment of 521.00 a month which is our only source of income right now. I pray they will help faster