First…
Did you know that marriage is not equal under the law in the United States? Technically, you can legally get married if you receive government benefits, but right now, it isn’t practical.
This is because most disabled people cannot get married without having vital benefits like Supplemental Security Income (SSI) and Medicaid severely reduced or even eliminated altogether, as the asset limit is a mere $2,000 for singles and $3,000 for couples. The income limits vary slightly by state, but they are extremely low and often equivalent to a starting salary. These limits apply whether or not your spouse receives services. Receiving SSI is often the only guaranteed way to qualify for Medicaid long-term services and supports (LTSS). Additionally, retirement accounts currently count as assets, which makes it nearly impossible for people with disabilities to save for retirement.
The good news is that there is proposed legislation to fix this. The SSI Restoration Act and the Marriage Equality for Disabled Adults Act are two of those pieces of legislation.
The SSI Restoration Act would eliminate the marriage penalty, raise the income and asset limits to qualify for services, increase benefits, and exempt retirement accounts from being counted as assets. It would modernize outdated SSI rules and allow people with disabilities to build financial stability without losing critical support.
The Marriage Equality for Disabled Adults Act would allow disabled adults to marry without losing essential benefits like Social Security and Medicaid. It would also prevent spouses’ income and resources from being counted against each other and protect continued Medicaid eligibility after marriage.
Together, these bills would help ensure that people with disabilities do not have to choose between love and the services they need to live independently.
All of us at the Social Security Administration want to recognize Patrice Jetter, Garry Wickham, and everyone involved in Patrice: The Movie, a documentary that focuses on the couple’s concerns about losing their disability benefits if they got married.
Our agency stands ready to assist Congress as it works to address outdated laws and to strengthen programs like Supplemental Security Income (SSI) that serve millions of people with disabilities throughout the country. Enacted 50 years ago, the SSI program provides payments to people with disabilities and older adults who have limited income and resources.
Congress imposes limits on SSI applicants and recipients, including asset limits for individuals and married couples that have not been adjusted since 1989. As applied today, that partial 1989 update can make it difficult for SSI recipients to save money and can cause other hardships, as the movie emphasizes.
The movie also highlights how changes to the asset limit and related marriage rules can only be made by Congress because those have been set by statute. For decades, there has been Congressional interest in updating SSI asset limits. Back in 2003, for example, a committee in Congress wanted to update limits (from $2,000 to $3,000 for individuals and from $3,000 to $4,500 for couples) and index those amounts for inflation, and there have been more recent legislative efforts as well. Again, we stand ready to provide expertise to Congress as it discusses and debates this issue.
While only Congress can make some changes, to the extent possible by law SSA is taking steps to update SSI policies administratively to simplify rules, reduce burdens, and better support people with disabilities. For example, as announced earlier this year, today is the effective date for three SSI enhancements that are estimated to lead to new or increased SSI payments for hundreds of thousands of Americans with disabilities.
This is important--money is fungible. Consider, for instance, two state Medicaid programs--Ohio and New York. New York gives Medicaid to illegals and Ohio doesn't.
When the government gives billions of dollars to New York for Medicaid, that frees up state money in New York that can then be spent on illegals.
It's like if you give a mobster $100 but he PROMISES you he won't spend the money to buy a gun and commit a crime. Well, he takes the $100 you gave him and buys food, and then takes the money he would have spent on food and uses that money to buy the gun instead. This is what "money is fungible" means.
Additionally, because medical services are limited in supply, when an illegal accesses health. care, it drives up the cost for everyone. So New Yorkers are paying a higher price for medical services, and the federal government is subsidizing those higher prices
{I doubt} that the 1960s approach to welfare has made it easier for our country’s poor children to achieve their dreams. But {we} are deluding ourselves if we fail to acknowledge that it did accomplish something else: it prevented a lot of suffering, and made it possible for people like (my grandmother) and those with disabilities to access food and medicine and things like adaptive equipment and personal care attendants when they were too poor, too old, or too sick to buy it themselves. This ain’t nothing. To me, the fundamental question of our domestic politics over the next generation is how to continue to protect our society’s less fortunate while simultaneously enabling advancement and mobility for everyone. We can easily create a welfare state that accepts the fact of a permanent American underclass, one where family dysfunction, childhood trauma, cultural segregation, and hopelessness coexist with some basic measure of subsistence. Or we can do something considerably more difficult: reject the notion of a permanent American underclass.
- Vice President JD Vance in his book Hillbilly Elegy (bold parts added by me)
"We have created a system where growing numbers of citizens have become reliant upon government subsidies, incentivizing government dependency over self-sufficiency. The so-called marriage penalty embedded in the assistance programs creates a tangible disincentive to family formation."
— Dr. Ben Carson
"Programs that uphold dignity of work, strengthen... family structures, and offer real hope for upward mobility are the ones that truly serve American people."
— Dr. Ben Carson