Denisegilmore
Registered user
Username: Denisegilmore
Post Number: 267
Registered: 10-2000
| | Posted on Monday, April 18, 2005 - 6:19 am: |     |
Urgent - Action Needed on SSI
Like Medicaid, SSI also is in serious jeopardy in the
budget bill conference negotiations. A paper explaining
the issue is now posted on the CCD website at:
<http://www.c-c-d.org/SSI%20Threat4c.pdf>.
The picture has gotten worse in the last week. For the
first time, we know for sure that there are conversations
about cutting SSI as part of budget reconciliation.
And, yesterday, the Hill news services reported that the
budget conferees are trying to agree upon $43 billion in
cuts in mandatory spending programs - this would mean
that substantial cuts would have to come from Medicaid,
SSI, EITC and other programs important to people with
disabilities and their families.
The information below discusses the importance of SSI
to the children and adults who receive SSI. Please use
this to contact your Members of Congress, especially
Senators, directly. Urge Senators and Representatives
tell their leaders to stick with the Senate budget bill
(which has no cuts in SSI, Medicaid or the EITC) and reject
House cuts in order to protect key programs for people with
disabilities like SSI and Medicaid.
Later today, action alerts will be posted to the action
centers on the websites of The Arc
(www.thearc.org <http://www.thearc.org>)
and United Cerebral Palsy (www.ucp.org <http://www.ucp.org>).
Feel free to use those sites to send email to your Members
of Congress on this issue.
Cuts in SSI are likely to means greater costs falling upon
state and local governments as people lose their SSI and
Medicaid and turn to local governments to try to make ends
meet. In addition, already-stretched private organizations
such as charities, soup kitchens, and shelters for people
who are homeless will find there are more people who need
their help.
Please share this alert and the attached memo with these
officials and organizations and urge them to contact your
members of Congress as well.
Time is of the essence - these decisions are being made
now and over the next week - so please act early and often!
Many thanks!
---
Cuts to SSI Threaten Our Nations Most Vulnerable Senior Citizens
and People with Disabilities
Proposed and signed into law by President Nixon, the Supplemental Security
Income (SSI) program was "designed to provide a positive assurance that the
Nations aged, blind, and disabled people would no longer have to subsist on
below poverty-level incomes." In 2005, the Bush Administration described
the programs accomplishments this way:
By any measure, the SSI program has been extremely successful over its 30
years of operation. For the low-income aged, blind, or disabled
individuals, SSI is truly the program of last resort and is the safety net
that protects them from impoverishment.
2004 SSI Annual Report, Social Security Administration
Despite a record of accomplishment, the SSI program could be a target for
significant cuts this year. This could push millions of vulnerable seniors
and people with disabilities deeper into poverty.
7 House budget threatens SSI: The House Budget Resolution would
require the
Ways and Means Committee, which oversees the SSI program, to cut a total of
$18.7 billion from the programs under its jurisdiction. SSI is one of the
largest programs under the Committees jurisdiction and is likely to absorb
a significant share of any required cuts. The Senate Budget does not
require cuts in this part of the budget. House and Senate leaders are
meeting this week to work out a compromise between these two positions.
7 SSI cuts mean less help for vulnerable elderly individuals and
people with
disabilities: There are two ways to cut the SSI program - reduce the level
of benefits that individuals receive or terminate assistance to subgroups of
recipients. If significant cuts are to be made in SSI, some poor elderly
individuals or people with disabilities will lose assistance entirely, or a
larger group will lose part of their assistance.
It is unclear how large the SSI cuts under consideration would
be. If SSI
is cut by $1 billion in 2006 and the cuts are achieved by terminating all
assistance to some recipients, some 188,000 individuals would have to be cut
off from the program. (Larger cuts would mean more people would lose basic
income assistance.) Even a cut of $500 million in 2006 would mean that some
94,000 individuals with disabilities or seniors would have to be terminated.
7 SSI provides critical income assistance to 7 million of the most
vulnerable Americans - the elderly and people with serious disabilities.
Only those living well below the poverty line qualify for assistance. The
amount they receive, while vital, is not large - the monthly benefit for an
individual living alone is just $579, 25 percent below the poverty line.
SSI keeps the elderly and people with disabilities from destitution.
While SSI benefits alone are not enough to lift individuals and couples
above the poverty line, SSI benefits do reduce the extent and depth of
poverty. Some families are lifted out of poverty when SSI is combined with
other benefits such as food stamps and the earnings or other income of other
family members. In 2002, more than 2.1 million people lived in families
whose disposable income was lifted above the poverty line by SSI. This
includes 427,000 children and 462,000 seniors. SSI lessens the severity of
poverty for millions more. Poor families that include an SSI recipient
typically have incomes equal to about three-quarters of the poverty line -
without SSI, the families incomes would have been just one-third of the
poverty line.
SSI supplements Social Security benefits. Many Social Security
beneficiaries have income and resources low enough to also qualify for SSI.
These individuals receive a modest amount from SSI that supplements their
Social Security benefits. In December 2003, more than one-third of SSI
recipients overall also received Social Security, and more than one-half of
SSI aged 65 or over receive Social Security benefits.
SSI helps individuals with disabilities who work. In 2003, more than
323,000 SSI beneficiaries with disabilities or blindness were employed. SSI
does not tax benefits dollar-for-dollar when recipients work, but instead
reduces benefits by 50 cents for every dollar earned, providing a modest
work incentive.
SSI eligibility qualifies persons with disabilities and the
elderly for
Medicaid. Many persons with disabilities and elderly people who are
low-income also qualify for Medicaid to cover their medical expenses. If
SSI recipients lose their SSI benefits as a result of cuts made in a budget
reconciliation bill, they also could lose Medicaid. Cuts in SSI could
increase the number of people who are uninsured for medical care.
SSI is the safety net for the "oldest old." More than six in ten aged
recipients are over the age of 75 and more than one-third are over the age
of 80.
In 1996, deep cuts were made to the SSI program. These changes tightened
the disability requirements that children must meet to receive SSI income
assistance and severely restricted access to the program for poor legal
immigrants.
From: Eileen Sweeney and Marty Ford
NOTE NEW ADDRESS:
The Arc and UCP Disability Policy Collaboration
1660 L St., NW Suite 701
Washington, DC 20036
(202)783-2229
FAX (202)783-8250
www.thearc.org
www.ucp.org
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