The Pacific Daily News reports that Guam's non-voting delegate to the House of Representatives, Madeleine Bordallo, is introducing a bill to remove the cap on Supplemental Security Income (SSI) payments to people living in U.S. territories such as Guam. The article says that because of the cap the average SSI payment in Guam is only about $100, rather than over $600 as it is in the U.S. proper.
I am confused. I thought that SSI was not payable at all in U.S. territories such as Guam -- and more importantly, Puerto Rico. When did this change and what is the cap?
I am confused. I thought that SSI was not payable at all in U.S. territories such as Guam -- and more importantly, Puerto Rico. When did this change and what is the cap?
4 comments:
You're right. Residents of Guam are not eligible for SSI.
https://s044a90.ssa.gov/apps10/poms.nsf/lnx/0500501001!opendocument
The territories don't have SSI: they have Aid to the Aged, Blind, and Disabled, which is the program that was in effect before SSI was created in the early 1970s.
The funds the federal government gives to the territories to pay A, B, & D recipients amounts to around $100 per person.
Guam, American Samoa, Norther Marianias Islands there are real territories still "owned" by the US and they do get different treatment. Puerto Rico is, I believe, in commonwelath with the US and is not a territory. Back when I was an SSI CR I knew all the territories, as it was part of the SSI app.
Been that way since forever
The last I knew, the residents of the Northern Mariannas were the only ones eligible for SSI payments outside the fifty states and the District of Columbia. I was not aware that when SSI replaced Assistance to the Aged, Blind and Disabled that those in Guam (and American Samoa?) were still receiving money that way. The former assistance program was administered by state/local governments before it was moved to the SSA and renamed SSI during the Nixon administration.
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