From a summary of a report by Social Security’s Office of Inspector General:
SSA considers recipients’ resources when determining eligibility for SSI. While SSA generally excludes one vehicle per household from countable resources, additional vehicles may affect a recipient’s eligibility for SSI payments. SSA relies on recipients to report the vehicles they own and changes in vehicle ownership.
We reviewed 208 SSI recipients to determine whether recipients accurately reported their vehicle ownership to SSA and whether the Agency properly valued multiple vehicles when recipients reported owning more than one.
Of the 208 SSI recipients we reviewed, 154 (74 percent)accurately reported their vehicle ownership. However, public records indicated 54 recipients (26 percent) owned vehicles they did not report. For 8 recipients, the additional vehicles caused their countable resources to exceed SSI eligibility limits, resulting in $40,474 in payments for which they were ineligible. Based on our results, we estimate SSA overpaid approximately 660 recipients $435,000 because inaccurately reported vehicle ownership affected their SSI eligibility. …
I once had a client on SSI with, I think it was 29 cars in his name. His history was that he bought the absolutely cheapest used car he could find and did no maintenance or repair on it. When the car stopped running, he would abandon it on his rural property. He considered the cars worthless and he was probably right. He never turned in the titles on the cars. I told him to turn in the car titles and talk with Social Security. I knew that, at least, he would be eligible from that point on. Social Security agreed that the cars had been worthless and there was no overpayment. You may think this must have been some sort of scam but he seemed quite believable to me and to Social Security. Life is different in poor rural areas. |
16 comments:
I had a client who had a non-running mini-van they were using as a chicken coop. We had to prove to the local field office that it was only worth scrap vehicle before they would resume payments. The client did not think of the van as a vehicle anymore so never mentioned it
Must OIG burn valuable time and energy on such minor issues when there must be bigger fish to fry? Their time would actually be better spent working a few RZs or even answering the 800 calls.
Yes, because the GOP has insisted that they waste time and money on this sort of thing through their budget appropriations. The point is to rob the poor of any dignity.
I am far more worried about a 22% across the board cut in my benefits than an individual with 25 clunkers. Why is Social Security not being addressed in this election cycle?
They'll wait until the last minute...most likely after the election cycle, that's how social programs work in a democracy (apparently).
One car per household (generally) is draconian. Usually they are beaters anyway unless financed because of the draconian rules on saving more than $2000. That's certainly not going to buy a reliable car, and they realized that years ago. So rather than raise that $2000 savings amount, they just said that one can own a car regardless of value (within reason, a Rolls Royce will most likely be over the limit). I am unaware about the 2 car valuation. The issue is, in my case, my blower motor went out, so no AC/heat. And no money to fix it....(my alternator just went out and it was $1750 to fix, wiping out my savings. $2000 (if my savings were full) would most likely not cover front/rear blowers, and will also not replace the vehicle. Gonna be a cold winter out there on the roads while constantly wiping the windshield free of fog/frost. That's just an example of SSI's draconian rules that lead to having 25 junk vehicles abandoned on private property as they are replaced through the years. Totally get it. Sometimes it's cheaper to buy another one than to fix the one you have.
Those clunkers could be become a side business if the 22% cut is implemented and the homeless population spikes.
Because the idiots who populate America elected an orange moron with dementia and a buch of other old white men with subaverage cognitive abilities to run the federal government.
How about raising the income and resource limits once in a while to humane and realistic levels? Like to keep up with inflation and the general cost of living?
I'd like to see SSA issue regs or POMS saying that up to one car per SSI recipient and deemor (spouse or parent) in the household is considered property essential to self support and thus excluded from countable resources. This is a rare SSI improvement that SSA could make on its own without needing Congress to act. I've seen situations where the parents of a disabled child have to figure out how to use the one car they're allowed--is it for Parent A to get to work, or Parent B to bring the child to medical appointments? It's an especially big issue in rural areas where public transit or waiting for an ambulance in emergencies just won't cut it. The additional outlay of SSI this rule change would cause would be at least partially offset by administrative savings to SSA, and by families that manage to work themselves out of SSI eligibility.
Cute how you think a family on SSI could afford gasoline in Trump’s economy
Well those are not the rules you are clueless
Yes, gas in this economy is difficult. If one doesn't live right in town, it's a burden, to say the very least. I'm not a fan of electric cars, but that may change soon if this mess doesn't clear up.
I worked in the field office years ago. These extra "cars" are mostly yard ornaments.
Unfortunately, I have had to deal with cases where cars were in one person's name but were actually used and driven and considered to be the care of someone else. This is partly due to insurance issues, licensing issues, hiding an asset from family or creditors, etc. Never a good idea but it causes sometimes insurmountable problems if the car is titled to an SSI recipient.
@3:37: or they could offset the slight additional cost by, say, actually making rich a**-holes like Trump and Elon pay a tax rate at least as high as those of us struggling with our middle class incomes. I guess ghat would be communism or something though, huh?
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