The federal government filed a lawsuit in an attempt to recover more than $28,000 paid to a United States citizen in Supplemental Security Income (SSI) benefits after he moved from New York to Puerto Rico.
According to Social Security’s rules citizens can receive SSI benefits while living in the United States and even in the Mariana Islands, but not Puerto Rico even though it is a United States territory. Because of this rule Social Security went after the money paid to this citizen, but a federal judge said not so fast to Social Security. In a ruling issued earlier this month, Judge Gustavo Gelpi dismissed the lawsuit declaring that the attempt to recover the SSI payments was unconstitutional as the Associated Press reported. In his decision, the judge said a clause in the constitution that allows legislators to enact regulations for U.S. Territories is not an automatic authority to deny rights other U.S. citizens have and violates the constitutional right to due process and equal protection.
“Congress, likewise, cannot demean and brand said United States citizen while in Puerto Rico with a stigma of inferior citizenship to that of his brethren nationwide,” Gelpi wrote, adding that powers granted under the Constitution are not infinite.
If Social Security is going to deny SSI benefits to Puerto Rican residents, which anyone who is a citizen in all of the 50 states or the territory of Mariana Islands is eligible, what is the positive side of being a U.S. citizen living in Puerto Rico or other territories like the U.S. Virgin Islands and Guam which also can be denied Social Security benefits? For now, the person who was subjected to the federal lawsuit by Social Security does not have to pay back the SSI benefits he received because of the judge’s order.
