Statement on Patrice: The Movie and SSI Enhancements Rolling Out

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Our agency stands ready to assist Congress as it works to address outdated laws and to strengthen programs like Supplemental Security Income (SSI) that serve millions of people with disabilities throughout the country.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.