From the Associated Press:
Before you yawn and say that's interesting but what does it have to do with me, consider this. Puerto Rico residents should immediately start filing SSI claims to give themselves protective filing dates. The Puerto Rico field offices aren't ready for this and will need lots of outside held. However, the real avalanche of SSI claims will come if this holds up on appeal. Taking and adjudicating those claims will be an enormous undertaking for an understaffed agency. It will take resources away from other parts of the agency.
A U.S. judge said Monday that the federal government is violating the Constitution by prohibiting people who live in Puerto Rico from receiving Supplemental Security Income.
The opinion was issued as Judge Gustavo Gelpi dismissed a lawsuit filed by the federal government seeking to recover more than $28,000 in SSI disability benefits paid to a U.S. citizen after he moved from New York to the U.S. territory of Puerto Rico.
Gelpi said a clause in the Constitution that allows federal legislators to enact rules and regulations for U.S. territories is not "carte blanche for Congress to switch on and off at its convenience the fundamental constitutional rights to due process and equal protection."
"Congress, likewise, cannot demean and brand said United States citizen while in Puerto Rico with a stigma of inferior citizenship to that of his brethren nationwide," Gelpi wrote, adding that powers granted under the Constitution are not infinite.
If this holds up on appeal, it's enormously important in Puerto Rico. Let's use Mississippi for comparison. About 121,000 Mississippians out of a population of about 2.9 million draw SSI. If the same proportion of the population of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, about 3.2 million, were to draw SSI it would be about 134,000 people but Puerto Rico is certainly poorer than Mississippi so it would be more.The ruling involved the case of Jose Luis Vaello Madero, who lived in New York from 1985 until 2013, when he moved to Puerto Rico. He continued to receive payments until 2016, when he was told he was ineligible. The Social Security Administration then filed civil action against him in 2017 demanding he return the funds he received. ...
Before you yawn and say that's interesting but what does it have to do with me, consider this. Puerto Rico residents should immediately start filing SSI claims to give themselves protective filing dates. The Puerto Rico field offices aren't ready for this and will need lots of outside held. However, the real avalanche of SSI claims will come if this holds up on appeal. Taking and adjudicating those claims will be an enormous undertaking for an understaffed agency. It will take resources away from other parts of the agency.
By the way, everyone knows that Puerto Ricans are U.S. citizens, right?
There was a time in the late 70s when SSA prepped for SSI in PR. Field staff was approached about language skills and availability to take and adjudicate SSI claims in PR. Those of us who couldn't speak Spanish were allowed to put our hats into the ring if you could read Spanish. Obviously, nothing ever happened, but there were more than a few of us who said we were interested.
ReplyDeleteAlso, remember that unless a staff person transferred from the states, the entire staff will need to trained in SSI. Right now, the PR staff only take RSDI claims and are unfamiliar with the income and resource requirements to qualify for SSI.
ReplyDeleteThat would be hugely popular in today's hate filled environment.
ReplyDeleteVery interesting. In the past, I've heard of challenges from a claimant/plaintiff/applicant perspective, arguing SSI should be available in the territories. In this case, it is from a recipient/defendant perspective, fighting an overpayment/termination due to his change in residence.
ReplyDeleteFootnote 9 is interesting. Can't see the briefs, but I would think SSA's point was SSI recipients in the mainland and other territories HAD been responsible for paying federal income tax, which funds the general fund where SSI is funded from. In the instant case, the defendant was residing in New York, meaning he was as responsible as any SSI mainland resident...so that argument doesn't really apply. As to if that logic applies to SSI beneficiaries, I am uncertain whether Congress meant to rely on the minimal taxable income the average SSI claimant provides to the general fund.
Actually, given the recent increase in standard deduction, wouldn't any SSI recipient actually responsible for paying any income tax exceed SGA? At the very least, it would be close. Also, that kind of income would effectively nullify SSI benefits due to the income offset.
Isn't it not about individual persons but the general idea that citizens/residents of PR don't pay US fed income tax, fed income tax feeds SSI, SSI should only be paid in areas where fed income tax is collected--> citizens/residents of PR shouldn't get SSI.
ReplyDeleteThis is crazy! (Taking SSI from a citizen.) I didn't know Puerto Rico residents weren't supposed to get SSI. They are part of the rest of the system. I had an ALJ from there once. What do very poor disabled people without an earnings record do?
ReplyDelete@ 12:49, see above, residents of PR don't pay into the SSI system, therefore, before now they have been found ineligible to receive those benefits.
ReplyDeleteCongress has visited/revisited Puerto Rico four times, turned them down four times, and an activisr federal judge without looking at the legislation turns the case on equal protection?
ReplyDelete> https://fas.org/sgp/crs/row/cash-aged-pr.pdf
@12:44 that's treating SSI as if it Social Security Disability. SSI is a poverty program where a person's taxpaying record is irrelevant.
ReplyDeleteUnited States citizens in the Northern Mariana Islands do not pay Federal income tax but they are eligible for SSI.
@12:44 and 12:49
ReplyDeleteUnited States citizens residing in Puerto Rico may or may not pay federal income tax, depending on the circumstances (it can depend on length of residency, types of work, etc.) as the Court notes at footnote 9. Regardless, all United States citizens residing in Puerto Rico pay federal payroll tax (if applicable), federal import/export tax, and a number of other federal taxes. Also, United States citizens residing in Puerto Rico do pay social security and medicare tax, and while that wouldn't even indirectly fund SSI, it does show federal taxation in Puerto Rico exists.
Regardless, SSI is not funded directly by federal income tax, just federal taxes in general, as SSI is funded through the general treasury fund which pools federal taxes together.