The quest of lobbying members of Congress to include Supplemental Security Income (SSI) reform in the current infrastructure package that is being considered is a never-ending journey for disability advocates.
The Consortium for Citizens with Disabilities (CCD), a Social Security task force, wrote a letter to the majority and minority leaders in Congress October 15, 2021 urging for the inclusion of what they call “long overdue” improvements to SSI, especially during the pandemic. This is not the first letter the group sent a letter to Congress urging for improvements to SSI. The group also sent letters on May 12, 2021 and July 26, 2021.
It has remained particularly difficult for people to apply for SSI since the pandemic caused shutdowns in March of 2020. Now, 18 months later, nothing has changed as Social Security offices remain pretty much closed to the public due to the pandemic. Social Security does recommend online or phone service while offices remain closed, but it is not an easy task to get someone from Social Security on the line to schedule an SSI phone appointment and millions of people have been left in limbo for 18 months without having good options to apply for SSI.
This is completely frustrating as those who are applying for SSI typically have extremely low income and few assets, while also potentially suffering from health impairments that keep from working. Improvements are need to SSI now more than ever.
Below is a portion of the letter the CCD sent to the majority and minority leaders in the U.S. House of Representatives and U.S. Senate urging for SSI reform. A copy of the entire letter can be found here.
We understand that there is currently substantial debate about what will ultimately be in the Build Back Better package, but we believe that it is crucial for SSI improvements to be included. SSI provides critical income assistance to 8 million very low-income people with disabilities and older adults and the benefit amounts and rules of this majority-minority program have not been updated for almost 50 years. We continue to strongly support the inclusion of President Biden’s campaign commitments on SSI in Build Back Better, but we understand the cost constraints that Congress is facing.
Some of the President’s commitments are very affordable: increasing the income disregards is only $60 billion over ten years, eliminating the rules prohibiting help from family and friends is only $31 billion, and updating the resource limits is only $8 billion. Other smaller changes we have long supported have negligible costs of under $500 million over ten years (including expanding SSI to the territories, excluding retirement accounts from resources, eliminating dedicated accounts, and other technical changes from the SSI Restoration Act). After decades of neglect, it is long past time for Congress to pass as many of these changes as possible in the upcoming package.
These important and long-overdue reforms are urgently needed to ensure that the 8 million people who currently rely on SSI benefits–as well as COVID long-haulers who will turn to SSI for critical income support in the months and years ahead–are able to live in dignity. We stand ready to help you make these long-overdue improvements a reality as we all work together to “build back better.”
