We’ve been reporting for years about difficulties caused by the $2,000 asset limit for Supplemental Security Income (SSI), that has not been increased since 1989, and the bipartisan bill introduced by Ohio Senators Rob Portman and Sherrod Brown to raise it to $10,000. Last year, The Boston Globe endorsed this important remedy which has been championed by The Arc.
Now, a National Public Radio report describes how the asset-limit trap has lead to extreme difficulties for beneficiaries. Reporter Joseph Shapiro tells the story of a beneficiary who was thrown off the program because she had taken out a $1,900 life insurance policy to pay for her funeral. As a result, the Social Security Administration terminated her monthly check and sought the repayment of $20,000 in back benefits.
This woman’s benefits were ultimately restored with assistance of a legal services attorney, but not until she experienced many months without income. And it took many hours of work by the attorney.
Another subject of the NPR report described not being able to save up money to move from an unsafe and rundown apartment because funds she would have to set aside to pay first and last month’s rent would put her the SSI asset limit. A third was denied benefits because his name was on a worthless timeshare property that he could not unload.
Congress seems able to enact tax laws that help the rich. For instance, during the decades that the SSI asset limit has remained at $2,000 it raised the federal estate tax threshold from $600,000 to $13.6 million.
If you think that Congress should instead provide relief to the poorest among us, you can easily tell your senators and member of Congress to get moving on this bill by clicking on this link.