Changes to Social Security benefits – Telemundo Las Vegas

The Social Security Administration New rules will be implemented to make it easier for beneficiaries to access certain benefits and increase the amount of payments that some can get.

New changes affect Additional security income, or SSI, which provides monthly benefit checks to more than 7 million Americans. Those benefits are for adults and children who are 65 and older and who are disabled or blind and have low income or resources.

“We already know that benefit amounts available to people receiving SSI are incredibly low,” said Lydia Brown, director of public policy at the National Institute on Disability.

“They’re not high enough to fully meet people’s needs,” Brown said.

Updates to the Definition of Public Assisted Living

The agency announced a new rule Thursday to expand the definition of a public assisted living facility. Now, families receiving payments from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, and families whose members do not receive public assistance will be included.

With the change, more people could qualify for SSI, current beneficiaries could receive more money, and people living in households receiving public assistance may have fewer reporting requirements, the Social Security Administration said.

The previous policy required all family members to receive public assistance.

A household receiving public assistance is defined as a household in which there is an SSI applicant or recipient, as well as at least one member receiving one or more Public Income maintenance payment methods.

“By simplifying our policies and including an additional program targeted at low-income families like SNAP, we are removing important barriers to accessing SSI,” Social Security Commissioner Martin O’Malley said in a statement. “These changes encourage greater participation in our programs.”

According to the Social Security Administration, 304,000 of the total 7.5 million SSI recipients were living in public assistance housing in January 2023.

The agency estimates that implementing the rule could allow approximately 277,000 federal SSI recipients (about 4% of all recipients) to receive an increase in monthly payments beginning in fiscal year 2033. An additional 109,000 people (a 1% increase) could become eligible for federal SSI payments who would not otherwise be eligible under current rules.

According to Darcy Milburn, director of social security and health policy at The Arc, a nonprofit that serves people with intellectual and developmental disabilities, the definition of an assisted living home has not been updated in a long time.

“I would classify this as a good policy and common sense change to update this definition,” Milburn said.

What’s more, SSI still operates in many ways under rules designed in the 1980s, said the National Institute on Disability’s Brown.

According to the Social Security Administration, SNAP was the first public income maintenance benefit to be included in the definition of a public assistance family since 1980.

Other rule changes to help beneficiaries

The Social Security Administration is working to address outdated practices with two rules that take effect Sept. 30.

A change will unfold SSI Rent Subsidy Policy So subsidized rent or other rental assistance is less likely to affect a beneficiary’s SSI eligibility or monthly payment amount. The policy, already in place in seven states, will be rolled out across the country.

Another change will create the SSA Food aid no longer counts Support recipients can have their SSI benefit amounts reduced as part of what they receive from other parties.

This is Article First published in English Lori Konish To our sister chain CNBC.com. Enter to learn more from CNBC Here.