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Jan 23, 2009

Senate Economic Stimulus Proposal Would Give $300 Bonus To Everyone On Social Security And SSI

From the Senate Finance Committee description of its Chairman's version of a draft economic stimulus bill:
The provision directs the Secretary of the Treasury to provide a onetime economic recovery payment of $300 to adults who were eligible for Social Security benefits, Railroad Retirement benefits, or veterans compensation or pension benefits;132 or individuals133 who were eligible for Supplement Security Income (SSI) benefits (excluding individuals who receive SSI while in a Medicaid institution). Only individuals who were eligible for one of the four programs for any of the three months prior to the month of enactment shall receive an economic recovery payment.
The bill pending in the House of Representatives would give a bonus of one month of benefits to SSI recipients -- which would be more for most SSI recipients -- but no bonus for recipients of Title II Social Security benefits.

I do not see any provision in the Senate proposal for extending Medicaid to those who are involuntarily unemployed.

3 comments:

  1. Title II bene;s got the last tax stimulus money. SSI recipients did not. Seems fair that the SSI folks now get something, since they were skipped last time.

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  2. SSI and Title II recipients were equally eligible for the last round of stimulus checks -- all they had to do was file for it. Besides, most people on SSI also get Title II.

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  3. Correcting some errors:

    SSI only recipients were not eligible to get the last stimulus payment. see IRS web site "Supplemental Security Income (SSI) does not count as qualifying income for the stimulus payment." http://www.irs.gov/newsroom/article/0,,id=179211,00.html.

    Also, you are wrong about the ratio of SSI recipients who also get TII. See http://www.socialsecurity.gov/policy/docs/statcomps/ssi_sc/ but to summarize, of the 7,359,525 getting SSI in December 2007, only 2,568,637 of them also got OASDI, a percentage far fewer than "most".

    Above facts easily found in 2 minutes of using google.

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