Social Security Reviewing SSI Reductions Due To Covid Financial Assistance

     From a recent new posting to Social Security's Covid-19 page:

We recently changed our rules about what financial assistance can affect your eligibility for SSI or your monthly SSI payment amount. Specifically, we no longer count the financial assistance listed below against your eligibility or payment amount. We are reviewing SSI claims and other SSI records going back to the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic to restore SSI payments for people whose SSI was affected by receiving any of the assistance listed below. ...

• Economic Impact Payments (EIP)
• State Stimulus Payments (Some exclusions may apply.)
• Unemployment Assistance (also includes regular unemployment)
• Paycheck Protection Program (PPP): Loan Forgiveness to Employers and Self-Employed Individuals
• Economic Injury Disaster Loan (EIDL) Program: Loans/Grants to Employers and Self-Employed Individuals /Grants
• Coronavirus Food Assistance Program – Direct Payments to Farmers and Ranchers
• COVID-19 Veteran Rapid Retraining Assistance Program
• COVID-19 Funeral Assistance
• Emergency Rental Assistance Fund
• Emergency Assistance for Rural Housing/Rural Rental Assistance
• Homeowner Assistance Fund
• Housing Assistance and Supportive Services Programs for Native Americans
• Tribal Payments from the Coronavirus Relief Fund and the Coronavirus State and Local Fiscal Recovery Funds
• Supporting Foster Youth and Families
• Higher Education Emergency Relief Fund
• Emergency Assistance to Children and Families through the Pandemic Emergency Assistance Fund
• Farm Loan Assistance for Socially Disadvantaged Farmers and Ranchers
• USDA Assistance and Support for Socially Disadvantaged Farmers, Ranchers, Forest Land Owners and Operators, and Groups ...

Stimulus Payments Cause Problems For Some SSI Recipients

     From HuffPost:

Stimulus payments aren’t supposed to count against eligibility for social insurance programs like disability benefits, but some people might have lost benefits because of too much money in their bank accounts.

The Social Security Administration has suspended disability benefits for some Supplemental Security Income recipients because the stimulus payments pushed their bank accounts above the program’s archaic $2,000 limit, according to legal aid attorneys. ...
It’s likely that relatively few of the program’s nearly 8 million beneficiaries have been affected. ...

Everyone on SSI is subject to the resource limit, which hasn’t been updated since 1989. It’s $2,000 for individuals and $3,000 for couples, with exclusions for a home, a car and certain other assets. 

Because the coronavirus stimulus payments are technically tax credits, they shouldn’t have affected eligibility for any social program, whether it’s food benefits or Social Security. Under federal law, tax credits don’t count as income or “resources” for eligibility purposes within a year of their receipt.

But the Social Security Administration is a huge agency with lots of employees, and it’s possible some have made mistakes, said Stacy Cloyd, director of policy and administrative advocacy with the National Organization of Social Security Claimants’ Representatives. What should happen, Cloyd said, is that when the agency sees more than $2,000 in someone’s bank account ― the overall balance is all the agency sees ― it should investigate and then back off if the cash came from a tax rebate within the past year.

 “If the resource limit were $10,000 this would be a lot less of an issue,” Cloyd said. President Joe Biden has proposed updating the asset limit, but Democrats haven’t yet reintroduced their bill to change the policy. ...

Social Security Halts No-Match Letters

     A press release:

Today, House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Richard E. Neal (D-MA), Social Security Subcommittee Chairman John B. Larson (D-CT), and Oversight Subcommittee Chairman Bill Pascrell, Jr. (D-NJ) released the following statement regarding Social Security Administration (SSA)’s decision to halt sending “no-match” letters, also known as Educational Correspondence (EDCOR) notices:

“We welcome SSA’s announcement that it will stop the harmful practice of sending no-match letters to employers with certain discrepancies in their W-2 records. Two years ago, we strongly condemned SSA’s decision to send these letters out in the first place because they disproportionately imperil immigrants and threaten workers’ privacy. No-match letters have been shown to be wholly ineffective in correcting wage records and are not a cost-effective use of SSA’s limited resources. Today, we reiterate that the agency is prohibited by law from using its funds for any purpose other than administering Social Security, such as immigration enforcement. While we are glad to see SSA finally do the right thing and stop sending these letters, it is unfortunate that SSA Commissioner Andrew Saul chose to send these harmful letters for two years, inflicting significant harm on many affected workers.”

In June 2019, Chairmen Neal and Larson, along with former Oversight Subcommittee Chairman, the late John Lewis (D-GA), sent a letter to Commissioner Saul opposing SSA’s decision to restart sending no-match letters. Specifically, the members cited their concerns that the letters may lead to the firing of U.S. citizens and work-authorized immigrants, that they may result in the unauthorized sharing of tax data, and that they were a poor use of SSA’s scarce resources. 

      You will notice the contrast drawn, implicitly, to the pious statements from Social Security that they were forbidden to help the IRS with stimulus checks until the IRS ponied up money for the costs of producing the lists of those eligible because the funds appropriated for Social Security could only be used for administering Social Security and not helping with stimulus payments. However, when the Trump Administration asked for Social Security's help with immigration enforcement, Social Security apparently saw no such obstacle.

     It's past time for the House Ways and Means Committee, the whole Committee, to hold an oversight hearing and force Andrew Saul to answer questions under oath.

Stimulus Payments To Be Delivered Next Week

      There's been a delay in getting stimulus payments out to recipients of Social Security and SSI benefits The delay may or may not have involved foot dragging at Social Security. My guess is that there was no deliberate foot dragging but a lack of perceived urgency. In any case, the obstacles have been cleared out of the way and payments should be delivered to bank accounts by April 7.

I'd Like To Hear The Other Side Of This Story

      From a press release issued by Andrew Saul:

"I want to provide an important update about the Social Security Administration’s (SSA) processing of Economic Impact Payments (EIPs) under the American Rescue Plan (ARP) Act.

At each turn over the last 12 months, immediate delivery of EIPs has been, and remains, a top priority for this agency. ...

Since the time that discussions began regarding issuance of EIPs in the ARP Act, weeks before passage, we have worked tirelessly with our counterparts at IRS to provide to them the information they need to issue payments to our beneficiaries. Despite the fact that Congress did not directly provide SSA funding to support our work on EIPs, we have provided countless hours of assistance to IRS consistent with the laws that establish how we may use the Trust Funds that every American counts on us to protect. ...

SSA discussed with Treasury and IRS, both before passage and after enactment of the ARP Act, that the Social Security Act does not allow the agency to use our administrative appropriation to conduct work on any non-mission provision or program. Accordingly, we were not authorized to substantively engage Treasury or IRS prior to the ARP’s passage. Instead, upon passage, we were required to pursue a reimbursable agreement with IRS because we received no direct appropriation through the ARP Act. From the outset of discussions, we kept congressional staff apprised of the hurdles this approach would create for SSA, and we have continued to update them on our progress with IRS as we completed the required interagency agreements.

Once we were free to move forward, we aggressively worked with Treasury and IRS to issue payments. As a result of our efforts, we successfully signed the reimbursable agreement and a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) less than one week after passage, on March 17. That process often takes weeks or months to complete, but we got the job done in a matter of days. A few days later, on Monday, March 22, SSA sent initial test files to IRS. IRS confirmed testing success on Wednesday, March 24. Production files were delivered to IRS before 9 AM on Thursday, March 25 – more than a week sooner than we were able to provide a similar file to IRS during the first round of EIPs. ...

     Doing it a little faster than last time doesn't sound like an achievement to me. Of course, it's faster this time because you have the experience of having done it before. I don't understand the statement that "we were not authorized to substantively engage Treasury or IRS prior to the ARP’s passage." Really, why not? Social Security cooperates with many other agencies all the time. What is this obsession with not using appropriations for non-mission programs? That doesn't seem to have prevented a ton of other data matches. Also, why was the agency having active discussions with Treasury and the IRS at a time when it supposedly wasn't allowed to "substantively engage" with them? That doesn't make sense. Why couldn't the MOU have been negotiated prior to passage of the bill and signed immediately after passage? Passage of the bill wasn't a cliffhanger. Why would it take even a week to negotiate a new MOU anyway? This had been done before. Just dust off the MOU you used previously and use essentially the same language. You don't have to re-invent the wheel.

     I'd like to hear the IRS and Treasury side of what happened.

Why Are There Delays In Stimulus Checks To Social Security Recipients?

      From a press release: 

Today, House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Richard E. Neal (D-MA), Social Security Subcommittee Chairman John B. Larson (D-CT), Oversight Subcommittee Chairman Bill Pascrell, Jr. (D-NJ), and Worker and Family Support Subcommittee Chairman Danny K. Davis (D-IL) wrote to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) and Social Security Administration (SSA) to express their concerns over reported delays in automatically issuing stimulus checks to some of the most vulnerable Americans. In previous rounds of direct payments, IRS and SSA worked together to deliver assistance to Social Security, Supplemental Security Income (SSI), Railroad Retirement Board (RRB), and Veterans Affairs (VA) beneficiaries automatically and promptly. There is no excuse for the delay this round, which puts critical assistance on hold for millions of Americans in need. ...

More Time To Qualify For Stimulus Checks

      From CNN:

The Internal Revenue Service is giving some Social Security recipients more time to register for the $500 per child they may be due as part of their full stimulus payment.  

Those eligible will have until September 30 to enter their information online. They can expect the payments to be issued by mid-October, the IRS said Friday.

Delayed Stimulus Checks For Some On Social Securiy

     Some Social Security beneficiaries are still waiting on their economic stimulus checks, according to CBS News. Of course, the Social Security Administration gets caught in the middle. It's the Treasury which is making the payments.

Senator Smith And Representative Craig Provide Leadership

     You may have wondered whether anyone in Congress is trying to do something to make sure that the dependents of Social Security beneficiaries receive economic stimulus payments. There are ongoing efforts. Senator Tina Smith (D-MN) and Representative Angie Craig (D-MN02) are leading the way. I wish there were more followers.

Rep Payees And Stimulus Payments

     When a person is receiving Social Security benefits through a representative payee their economic stimulus payment is being sent to the bank account of their representative payee because that’s the only bank account information Social Security has to give the Department of the Treasury. Social Security has now announced that it isn’t responsible for making sure the money is spent in the interests of the person it is intended for. Apparently, no agency is.

National Taxpayer Advocate On Stimulus Payments To Dependent Children

     The National Taxpayer Advocate (NTA) is part of the IRS. The NTA's blog is offering a long explanation for why the Department of the Treasury is only offering a limited window of time for Social Security and SSI recipients to file "tax returns" so that their children can receive economic stimulus payments. The whole thing is based upon the ridiculous premise that all these payments must be sent out in one big batch. The possibility of sending out a big batch now and then sending out smaller batches of payments later as people make the requisite filings seems to be beyond the ken of anyone at IRS. Perhaps more important, like the rest of the IRS, the NTA can't seem to comprehend that the Social Security Administration already has information on the dependents of those receiving Title II Social Security benefits and that information could be used to make payments to the parents of those children.

     At least, the NTA is saying that maybe something should be done about this situation although it makes conflicting recommendations that either Congress do something or the IRS do something. Maybe the IRS should do something and if they don't, maybe the Congress should tell them to do something.

     If there are further economic stimulus payments to be made, I'm not eager for the Social Security Administration to make them but it's clear to me that having the IRS do it was a terrible idea. They're out of their depth.

SSAB Urges Stimulus Payment Sanity

     From a press release issued yesterday by the Social Security Advisory Board:

Today, the Social Security Advisory Board (“Board”) wrote to the Commissioner of Social Security about the short turn-around time from announcement to deadline for families to complete the online form to receive the $500 relief payments for eligible dependents under the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act:

• The April 22, 2020 deadline for Social Security beneficiaries was only announced on April 20.
• The May 5, 2020 deadline for Supplemental Security Income (SSI) recipients was announced on April 24.

The Board’s letter urges the Commissioner to continue his work with Treasury to seek elimination of the filing deadlines for Social Security beneficiaries and SSI recipients. ...

     I guess they feel something might yet be done. I hope so but my impression is that the people in charge are deliberately doing the least they can do. It seems to have gone beyond simple incompetence.
     I don't understand why they're writing the Commissioner of Social Security. The problem isn't at Social Security. It's at the Department of the Treasury. Write Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin, pictured above with his wife, Louise Linton.

More On Stimulus Payments To SSI Recipients

     Last night Social Security sent out a press release saying SSI recipients have to May 5 to file “tax returns” in order for their minor children to get economic stimulus payments.

     Let me be clear. The U.S. Treasury is responsible for making these payments. They’re the ones making a mess of this. If there is another round of payments maybe Treasury will have its act together but my thought is that the Social Security Administration may need to detail some employees to help them out. Social Security has been using databases since the 1930s. Yes, they existed back then in a primitive form. There’s probably no other government agency with Social Security’s experience with databases. Treasury was so pathetic that they didn’t even do a match with the Death Master File before sending out payments! They need help.

Interesting

     Social Security is updating the section of its POMS manual dealing with the economic stimulus payments it last made in 2011 during the Great Recession. Why would you be updating a section of the manual dealing with a defunct program? Perhaps because you thought you might soon be doing the same thing once again?

How Did This Get Messed Up So Badly?

     From The Hill:

Two key Democrats are urging the Treasury Department to provide an "additional accommodation" for Social Security recipients who are unable to meet Wednesday's deadline to provide information to the IRS in order to quickly receive coronavirus rebates for their children.

"Given the importance of these payments at this critical time, we urge Treasury to consider all available options for paying these beneficiaries additional amounts owed this year," Reps. John Larson (D-Conn.) and Danny K. Davis (D-Ill.), senior Democrats on the House Ways and Means Committee, wrote in a letter Tuesday to Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin. ...

On Monday afternoon, the Treasury Department and IRS announced that if Social Security and railroad retirement beneficiaries want to get the payments for their children added to their automatic payments, they need to use an IRS web tool to provide the agency with their information by noon EDT on Wednesday. Recipients of SSI and veterans benefits have a little more time to submit their dependent information.

The recipients of federal benefits who don't promptly provide the IRS with information about their children will receive a payment in the near future of $1,200 and won't be able to receive the additional amounts for their children until they file their 2020 tax returns next year, the IRS said. The agency said that it would have to wait to issue the additional payments until a 2020 return is filed "by law."

Larson and Davis, who both are chairmen of Ways and Means subcommittees, said they appreciated that Treasury wants to quickly make payments to Social Security and railroad retirement recipients but expressed concerns about the fact that the IRS announced the deadline less than 48 hours before it occurs.  ...

     I hate to say it but I wish that the Social Security Administration had been given the task of making these payments. I'm pretty sure  SSA could be doing it better.

Dependents Won't Get Stimulus Payments Unless Their Parent Files "Tax Return" By Tomorrow!

     Earlier we had been told that those receiving dependent children's benefits from Social Security would receive economic stimulus payments, that the Treasury could get enough information from the Social Security Administration to pay them. Now, Treasury and Social Security are putting out press releases saying the kids won't be paid unless a parent files an online tax return and that this tax return must be filed by tomorrow!

     Who gave Treasury the right to impose an impossible deadline on millions of people? Why is this implementation such a mess? A lot of people won't get money they're due because of this incompetence.

Trump Administration Relents -- SSI Recipients Will Get Stimulus Payments Without Need To File "Tax Return"

     From a press release:

The Social Security Administration announced today that Supplemental Security Income (SSI) recipients will automatically receive their Economic Impact Payments directly to their bank accounts through direct deposit, Direct Express debit card, or by paper check, just as they would normally receive their SSI benefits. Treasury anticipates SSI recipients will receive these automatic payments no later than early May.  

“SSI recipients with no qualifying children do not need to take any action in order to receive their $1,200 economic impact payment. The payments will be automatic,” said Secretary Steven T. Mnuchin. “Recipients with qualifying children should use the ‘Non-Filers: Enter Payment Info Here’ web portal to enter basic information so they can receive their payments as quickly as possible.” ...

     This means that SSI recipients with children as well as those with pending disability claims who have not filed a tax return for 2018 or 2019 still need to file the "tax returns" but that's a much smaller problem.

An Economic Simulus Question

     Let me ask a question that probably won’t get answered here. Let’s say a disabled person has a Title II Social Security disability claim approved next month. He hasn’t already gotten an economic stimulus payment previously because he didn't file a tax return in the last two years. Will he get an stimulus payment once he gets on Social Security benefits? The question is whether the Treasury Department will just look once for Title II beneficiaries eligible to receive economic stimulus payments or whether it will continue to pay attention to those newly entitled. I'm guessing the Treasury won't pay attention to those newly entitled to Social Security benefits but we'll see. I'll bet that no one at Treasury has even though about this issue. It's going to affect thousands of disabled people each month and some non-disabled people filing for retirement and survivors benefits as well.

SSI Claimants Will Have A Lot Of Trouble Getting Economic Stimulus Payments

     To get a Covid-19 economic stimulus payment if you receive SSI benefits without also receiving Title II Social Security benefits you have to file an online  "tax return" unless you happened to have already filed a tax return in the last couple of years. To file the "tax return" you have to have an e-mail address. 

     I think that filing even though this process seems simple to most that it will defeat many SSI recipients. I decided to pull up all my firm's active SSI only cases to see how many have an e-mail address. I looked at the first 100 that came up in alphabetical order by the client's name. Of that 100, only 43 had an e-mail address.

     You might think that getting a G-mail account is simple and something that's necessary for modern life but most of my SSI clients haven't done it. Why? Many lack internet access. Many have mental limitations that make online transactions impossible for them. I'm not necessarily talking about cognitive limitations, although there's plenty of that in this population. Depression and anxiety make it hard to overcome even slight obstacles.

     I hope that many SSI claimants can overcome the hurdle that has been placed in their path, perhaps with help from others, but this hurdle shouldn't have been there to begin with. This online form is unnecessary. Social Security's databases already contain all the information needed to make these payments. No one has even tried to defend this cumbersome process as necessary.

SSI Recipients Must File Tax Returns To Get Stimulus Payments

     It's now official. If you're an SSI recipient who is not also receiving benefits under Title II of the Social Security Act, you must file a "tax return" in order to get the economic stimulus payments recently enacted. The "tax return" can only be filed online.

     This is terrible. It's completely unnecessary. Social Security's databases already contain all the information needed to make the payments. Social Security's databases are already being used to pay those receiving Title II benefits.

     This is a problem because many SSI recipients will never received the payment they are due because:

• They don't know that they need to file a "tax return" and no one is making any meaningful effort to tell them.
• They lack internet access.
• They lack an e-mail address, which is required to complete the "tax return."
• They can't figure out how to use the online form.
• The "tax return" requirement is going to generate a lot of calls to Social Security at a time when the agency already hopelessly overburdened with calls.

     Some may respond, wondering who lacks internet access and who lacks an e-mail address and who can't figure out how to complete the simple form. Many SSI recipients, that's who. If you actually deal with SSI recipients you already know this. If you don't, listen to someone who does. SSI recipients are far poorer, far less educated and far less sophisticated than most people can imagine.

     Why is this requirement imposed upon SSI recipients? I can't think of a reason other than hostility towards poor people.

     To respond to responses I know I'll get, of course SSI recipients haven't lost wages because of Covid-19. So what? Most people receiving the payments haven't lost income due to Covid-19. That's not the point of the payments.