Policy Options for Improving SSI - Senate Finance Committee Hearing 9/21

[Mersky]

https://www.finance.senate.gov/hearings/policy-options-for-improving-ssi

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My niece is excited about these proposals. Would mean a great improvement in her young life outlook where the current system she knows keeps her reliant on family and little but poor access to healthcare in her adult years, especially as she resides in Texas.

Please note, this a hearing regarding SSI, not SSDI. Should be noted that under the SSI system, monthly payments are $794 vs. $2-3k under SSDI. The current rules penalize efforts to live with dignity, security, and seeking greater independence. Is long overdue for reform as little has changed since 1972.

[Mersky]

1. Am listening and commenting lightly today as I gather my thoughts to submit to the Committee

I had no idea how the system worked until I became more involved in my niece’s life in the past four years.

[Mersky]

2. This is the first hearing on the matter

[JT45242]

3. Any discussion of lifting the cap to pay for it?

Easy solutions to funding SSI and Medicare are removing the caps on SSI/MEdicare taxable earning.

Hope they reform this as my sister who was hit by a drunk driver was denied disability even though there aren't jobs that can accommodate her need for no more than 10 minutes in a row standing or 15 minutes in a sitting. (DD broke both her legs, pne arm and a bunch of ribs when she was standing next to a broken down motorcycle)

[Mersky]

10. Gosh, that's a hard situation for your sister, but I think you're referring to SSDI benefits

You’d be shocked that my niece has to prove that she still has cerebral palsy every few years. Why can’t they just confirm her identity? Or how a friend of hers navigates through life is even more difficult, because he cannot accept help from his abusive parents. Those stories are devastating and not my story to go into here.

Is my honest belief that with an overhaul of purpose and some updates to the system can do more for recipients with the same or little more expense. The returns on such investment will be amazing.

[Mersky]

4. From a modern economics perspective, the Ticket to Work program is bizarrely bad

It isn’t a true system for incentivizing work, rather it is a trap for booting people off of SSI entirely. Game theory analysis and economic efficiency principles fly out the window if the goal is to encourage adults with disabilties to pursue earned income. Is just so arcane and difficult to navigate, docks pay once you start earning, can penalize workers for going over limits including removing of benefits or disqualification for getting SSI again in the future.

Basically, the work programs are non-starters.

[bamagal62]

6. And, they don't care what the work is.

As long as you work enough to get booted off SSI. That's the goal and they work really hard to disguise it. It's perfectly awful what they do.

[Mersky]

12. Yep. Is an outrageous bureaucratic contraption locked in archaic notions of people with disabilities

Last edited Tue Sep 21, 2021, 05:53 PM - Edit history (1)

Is way past time to fix it.

[Mersky]

5. Todd Young asked some tough questions

of Evangelista and Curda - they are giving testimony. No, sorry, I don’t have their titles nailed down yet. But, Evangelista basically got caught by the question everybody who deals with the SSI system asks themselves - is this supposed to be money to live on or supplemental? Really is a confused system as made evident in Evangelista’s answer. I see them struggling to defend or explain the broken system that has been passed along to others for decades.

(this is from a few mins ago)

[Mersky]

7. Lankford asked starting questions that reflect he has little understanding of the system

Thinks it’s just a matter of raising limits. Is seeking to argue costs. Ugh.

He should hear from my whip smart niece — might need to make this happen.

Now, he’s talking about SSI and SSDI as though they’re the same thing.

Aha, he brought it around that the system discourages work and marriage. So, there’s a glimmer he’ll take this on in a decent way.

[Mersky]

8. Sherrod Brown - It is odd that SSI applications have gone down during COVID

SSA’s offices have been closed, says Romig. That’s why they’re down. Need hasn’t gone down.

[Mersky]

9. Application rate to SSI is not a measure of effectiveness

I know Evangelista is just the latest, newest person overseeing SSA, but golly, that he will need to fashion together effectiveness gauges is nuts.

We’ve got to shake off these old ways, it’s unethical, not based in reality, and wasteful. And that’s before we even get into the psychological toll it takes.

[mopinko]

11. my youngest is on ssi. she'd love to marry her honey, but

she'd loose her bennies. cruelly insane.