SSI Disability Benefits and Its Cruelty — A Plea to Congress
On behalf of my sweet and loving mother, Rachel Maney, a victim of Congress’s continued negligence.
As of December 2020, over 8 million Americans collected paychecks from Supplemental Security Income (SSI) due to a combination of poverty and inability to make gainful employment, as a result of disability or age. My mother was one of these 8 million recipients who was given the following assurance by congress,
“Building on the present social security program, [the Social Security Amendments of 1972] would create a new Federal program administered by the Social Security Administration (SSA), designed to provide a positive assurance that the Nation’s aged, blind, and disabled people would no longer have to subsist on below-poverty-level incomes.”
In 2020, these 8 million Americans not only lived on below poverty level incomes, but they were also, and continue to be, subjected by coercion to stay in absolute poverty. The rules of SSI unarguably derive contingencies of punishment that prevent any effort to live above a less than humane standard set forth by our own federal government for the aged, blind, and disabled. The same people congress assured would no longer have to subsist under such conditions.
As of 08/11/2023, single SSI recipients receive $914 per month. For most recipients of the program, this is the only resource which can purchase housing, transportation, clothing, and basic necessities.
The program requires that recipients, both prior to and after enrollment for benefits, not accumulate more than $2,000 in assets, which includes land, vehicles, and cash savings. If they fail to do so, even at the smallest of margins, the federal government could penalize the recipient by placing them in overpayment — further reducing the available resources to the aged, blind, or disabled individual or subjecting them to suspension.
Unfortunately, the programs rules can become needlessly complicated, especially for some of the most vulnerable recipients of the program, those with intellectual or cognitive disabilities which limits a recipient's ability to understand and navigate the rules they agreed to.
For my mother, her inability to care for her inherited home, as both a product of declining physical/cognitive ability and lack of cash resources, due to substantially low resource limitations, led to her moving into low-income housing in September 2020. The house she formerly resided in was degrading, which led to health and physical safety concerns mostly ascribable to the financial inability to repair what was failing. In order to maintain her home, she would have needed to maintain a savings account which was greater than the limitations set forth by the program, slowly degrading her quality of life over time. Although the move was temporarily beneficial, rapidly improving her quality of life, the address change went unreported, due to her misunderstanding that reports had to go to SSA directly. Instead, she reported the other home to the government agency in charge of housing and the local food stamp office — which she thought was sufficient. At the time, she faced a significant cognitive decline. Unbeknownst to her, the home became an asset, and with little understanding of the situation, she was subjected to a termination of benefits and an overpayment of $20,000 she was expected to pay back. As a caretaker, I’m simply astounded by the lack of regard of employees to the individual circumstances and intent of each individual. By caseworkers, she was treated as a criminal, intentionally moved to manipulate the system, deserving of these consequences. It was outright unbearable for me to subject her to in person visits with the SSA. Every car ride home she cried because she felt like no one cared about her. As a son and caregiver, it's difficult not to harbor resentment towards any individual, or institution, who makes someone you love to feel this way.
Let me be clear, not being aware of rules or laws does not impart immunity. What is frustrating is the needless complexity of these rules, when a large percentage of program recipients are vulnerable to mistakes, not of their own fault or intent, but simply due to the circumstances which led them to seek assistance anyway.
Failure to meet SSI’s requirements and exposure to penalties do not necessitate incompetence or intent to defraud, but rather any and all attempts to naturally escape hardship inducted by being an SSI recipient. Recipients are coerced into poverty by definition.
The current asset limits are a mere fraction of their previous value. In 1972, an individual or couple may be able to save enough money to place a down payment on a home, withstand an emergency, purchase a car, or improve quality of life through home improvements. Limitations on asset limits do not account for expenditures that are solely related to disability, as medical expenditures for quality of life may not be included by health insurance. According to the SSA, assistance from family or friends is reportable and can impact how much may need to be repaid to the SSA. As such, upcoming financial challenges, such as the need to purchase a new vehicle, become more and more difficult to surpass as inflation continues to outpace the current limitations. Recipients who save mere dollars more than the $2000 limit can be subjected to full repayments of monthly benefits, increasing hardships over time.
A recipient who accumulates $2,001 in a savings account at the end of the month will be subjected to the full repayment of benefits in the following month. As inflation continues and COLA increases expand benefits, the survival of emergencies will cost more, necessitating that users save money and hide resources, making many recipients to be criminals, not by law but by treatment. This is a self-fulfilling prophecy.
The cruelty of SSI is that instead of helping the blind, disabled, or aged escape poverty, it subjects them by coercion to poverty or to the identity and treatment of a criminal.
Its limitations are coercive by nature, and no longer represent the assurance given by congress. Either through mere incompetence, or outright necessity, a lifeline for our most vulnerable populations hangs in the balance.
Social Security benefits also dissuade people from attempting any work, not because they are “lazy,” but because the penalties for failing to navigate a work program can be incredibly detrimental to any financial security, leveraging a loss of benefits even if the recipient can't follow through on employment, or overpayment incurring debt. The penalties dissuade work, which is oftentimes used as a reference to SSI recipients being “lazy and undeserving of benefits.” The program does not establish motivating operations for success. This leaves worried recipients who want to find outside work, even for a few hours a week, if able, dissuaded from attempting.
The complicated and harsh rules for recipients are compounded by the lack of adequately trained staff in social security offices across the U.S. Rotating case managers and changing information led to desperate attempts to sell my mother’s home based on the promises of a former case manager, who stated she should sell and spend down at a certain amount, which was completely overshadowed by the decision of a caseworker, who we never met in person, which penalized the sell as a transfer penalty. As a result, she was left with no savings from the home, no assets, and a suspension from SSI for three years…and we never met the person who made the decision. As a caretaker, in the span of a month, I watched as we lost the family home my mom promised to me for loss of income as a caretaker, and my mother gain security from much needed purchases for health and wellbeing during the spenddown, only to have it stripped due to another unexpected penalty. The complicated process was unbearable and traumatizing.
SSA can also penalize recipients if they made a mistake, subjecting them to unforeseen debts and claw backs. This includes SSI recipients. There is an eerie disconnect between the institutions perceived impact on an impoverished recipient of a large, unexpected debt and the actual mental harm detriment this can incur on its vulnerable pool of recipients. These penalties and rules seem to be clearly not written by lawmakers empathetic with the populations they are attempting to serve.
What I recognize is how blessed my mom is. I’ve decimated my credit as a student who has taken over her financial needs, a burden I did not expect to take, but I recognize there are many recipients who likely have faced the same burden but do not have the support of close family or a friend. I suspect many recipients face homelessness and possibly worse due to their vulnerability and lack of empathy from an institution which assured so much of them in 1972. I live in fear every day that my inability to provide for her due to unforeseen circumstances would leave her without a home and likely…dead. Thats a lot for a 23-year-old student.
SSI has been tremendously helpful to many, even under its current state. I recognize this, but this should not dissuade us as a country from living up to that original assurance, to protecting and giving its most vulnerable citizens a life worth living, because as hard as it is to bear, it has absolutely failed my mother.
My mother is one story in a sea of untold ones. Those untold ones, those are the scariest, because they likely have no power to tell them.
To those who have received such a scary and life altering letter, I want you to know this. This isn’t the end, and you are not worthless or less valuable. You are certianly not a criminal. Whether it was survival or misjudgment, this is a needlessly cruel system. You can always reach out to me if you need an ear. Be kind to yourself and tell your story…maybe we can change this if not for ourselves but for others who may not have to experience such anguish. There’s power in a group.
To congress, I want you to know this. Every decision you make impacts the livelihood of your constituents. My mother never worked a day in her life in a traditional role, but she certainly was a great mother, perhaps the most important job in the world. If this was your mother, I’m sure each of you would see the world differently.
(9) Social Security and SSI has ruined my moms life (Story) — YouTube
