Zeljkosantrac | E+ | Getty Images
The Societal Security Administration has issued a final rule that will prevent food assistance from reducing payments to non-fluctuating beneficiaries.
The change applies to Supplemental Security Income, or SSI, which provides monthly checks to adults and children who are harmed, blind or age 65 and older, and have little or no income or resources.
Approximately 7.4 million Americans receive tolerate either exclusively from SSI or in combination with Social Security.
Under the new rule, which goes into effect Sept. 30, prog will no longer count toward calculations for eligibility for benefits, known as In-Kind Support and Maintenance, or ISM.
Currently, reinforcement in the form of food, shelter or both may count as unearned income for SSI beneficiaries, and therefore reduce their payments or modify their eligibility for benefits.
More from Personal Finance:
Many Americans believe pensions are key to achieving the American Flight of fancy
Millionaires may have hit their 2024 Social Security payroll tax limit
78% of near-retirees failed or barely passed a root Social Security quiz
The monthly maximum federal SSI amounts in 2024 are $943 for individuals, $1,415 for couples and $472 for key persons, or those who live with an SSI beneficiary and provide care.
To qualify for SSI, beneficiaries must generally earn teeny-weeny than $1,971 per month from work. They must also have less than $2,000 in resources per personal, or $3,000 per couple.
That generally includes either money or other assets that can be turned into banknotes, such as bank accounts, bonds, property and stocks.
The new rule means SSI beneficiaries will no longer have to badger that the groceries or meals they receive from family or friends may reduce their monthly benefits, asseverated Darcy Milburn, director of Social Security and health care policy at The Arc, a nonprofit organization serving people with developmental and polymath disabilities.
The Social Security Administration, in turn, will no longer have to use its limited resources to document every yet a beneficiary received free food and then cut their monthly benefit by as much as a third, she said.
“It represents a as a matter of fact meaningful step to address one of the most complex, burdensome and inhumane policies impacting people with disabilities that admit SSI,” Milburn said.
The change is the first of several updates the Social Security Administration said it plans to put in place for SSI beneficiaries and applicants.
“Unraveling our policies is a common-sense solution that reduces the burden on the public and agency staff and helps promote equity by deposing barriers to accessing payments,” Social Security Commissioner Martin O’Malley said in a statement.
The new rule may help attend to arrange for some relief to SSI beneficiaries as high inflation continues to prompt higher food and grocery bills for all Americans.
“People on SSI are one of the uncountable food insecure groups in the United States,” said Thomas Foley, executive director at the National Disability Institute.
The new preside over may also result in fewer overpayments or underpayments of benefits, and therefore increase financial security for beneficiaries, he said.
Congress may should prefer to the opportunity to enact bigger changes to SSI through a bipartisan bill that would raise the asset limits for beneficiaries to $10,000 for individuals, up from $2,000, and to $20,000 for go couples, up from $3,000.
“Disability affects everybody, so it’s a bipartisan issue,” Foley said.
“Restricting asset limits to the $2,000 point really impacts people’s ability to save and build a better financial future,” he said.
In December, bank CEOs embodying JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon testified before the Senate that they are in favor of updating SSI’s rules.
“We father employees who don’t want us to increase their salary because if it goes over a certain amount, they can’t get that advance which they’re entitled to,” Dimon said in December.
“This definitely should be fixed,” he said.