SSAB Recommends Changes to the SSI Program
September 1, 2008
Author: Catherine M. Callery (Kate)| Louise M. Tarantino
The Social Security Advisory Board (SSAB), a seven-member bipartisan Board created by Congress to advise the President, the Congress, and the Commissioner on matters relating to the Social Security and Supplemental Security Income (SSI) programs, has recommended that Congress re-examine the SSI program - now more than 35 years old. The SSBA has begun its own review of several aspects of the program. In May, it released Issue Brief #4, in which it considers three aspects of the program that need “a fresh look as part of a comprehensive legislative review”:
- Benefit levels in household with one than one SSI beneficiary
- Benefit levels for disabled beneficiaries; and
- Asset limits and excluded amounts of income
The Board concluded that while it agrees with Congress’s initial premise that two can live more economically than one, SSI’s “couple’s rate” gives beneficiaries an incentive not to marry and gives married couples an incentive to dissolve their marriages. It recommends “equivalence scales” - to be applied to households of all sizes and compositions.
The SSAB also raised the issue of the additional household costs associated with the disability of a beneficiary. Recognizing that setting rates that vary based on disability would make a complicated program more complicated, it suggests that further research is needed to set appropriate benefits rates.
Finally, the SSAB addressed the question of “frozen income and resource limits.” The Board questioned whether Congress’s original goal of ensuring minimum income for eligible beneficiaries is still being met in light of the fact that the $20 general and $65 earned income exclusions have not been increased in 35 years. If they had been indexed to reflect increases in wages using the Average Wage Index, they would now be about $105 and $342, respectively. Similarly, the asset limit of $2,000 for an individual and $3,000 for a couple has not been increased since 1989. Adjusted for inflation, those figures would now be $3,500 for an individual and $5,250 for a couple.
The SSAB’s Issue Brief #4 is available at http://www.ssab.gov/documents/SSI.pdf.
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