Beginning in September, the Social Security Administration will make changes to some programs that will have an impact on millions of people across the country.
Additionally, while most people who get Social Security are retired workers, the Supplemental Security Income (SSI) program also helps other people with their daily needs by giving them money. In contrast to retirement benefits, SSI benefits are meant to help low-income adults over 65, disabled people, and children who are in certain financial situations.
The new rules will only affect the SSI program, so about 7 million people who get monthly help from that program will need to know how these changes will affect it starting in September.
Everything will change again in Social Security starting in September
Minimum monthly income for SSI recipients is $1,971, and the average check is $943 for individuals and $1,415 for couples filing jointly. But the new rules might change who can be a beneficiary and mean that those who already qualified will get more money.
The Social Security Administration has announced three new rules that will go into action on September 30, 2024. These rules will help people who are already on the Supplemental Security Income program and make it easier for more Americans to get benefits. In September, these new rules for Social Security will go into effect:
The new public assistance home definition
A big change coming to the Supplemental Security Income (SSI) program is the new definition of a public assistance home. The Social Security Administration is going to make the term more general.
At the moment, everyone in the family has to be getting public assistance before they can apply for SSI benefits. Under the new rule, however, only one person on SSI and at least one other person getting one or more types of means-tested public benefits will be needed.
The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) will also now be seen as state assistance for households. This change will help people who get SSI and live in homes with other people who get benefits.
Food assistance will be measured differently
Recently, the federal agency also said that food aid, which is an example of in-kind support and maintenance (ISM), will no longer be taken into account when figuring out who is eligible.
Food and housing aid used to be treated as unearned income, which means that benefits were cut by a lot because, in SSA’s eyes, income is higher. The reason for this change is that ISM rules cause a lot of problems with administration, incentives, and fairness.
A lot of experts in the field believe that some SSI policies help certain recipients financially, while others might make families less likely to help their low-income cousins get SSI because they might see their payments go down by the same amount.
To figure out SSI payments, the Social Security Administration has to lower a person’s monthly benefits if they have countable wages or other income that falls into the ISM group.
Benefits should be cut based on the value of the ISM received because people who get food and/or shelter aid need less help to meet their basic needs than people who don’t get those services.
Rental subsidy policy to be expanded
The last change that will happen this month has to do with the rental aid policy. It will be made stronger so that renting at a discount or getting other rental help won’t affect your ability to get SSI or your monthly payment amount. The law is already in place in Connecticut, Illinois, Indiana, New York, Texas, Vermont, and Wisconsin.
The new rule will make the policy apply across the whole country. Help with rent, like paying less, has less of an effect on a person’s SSI eligibility and payment amount in these places.
This new rule treats all SSI applicants and receivers in the same way, which is in their favor. This could increase the amount of money that some people can get from SSI, making it possible for more people to get these important payments.
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