Simplifying the Supplemental Security Income program: options for eliminating the counting of in-kind support and maintenance

The Supplemental Security Income (SSI) program, administered by the Social Security Administration (SSA), is the income source of last resort for the low-income aged, blind, and disabled. Because SSI is means tested, administering the program often requires month-to-month, recipient-by-recipient benefit recomputations. An increase in a recipient's income usually triggers a benefit recomputation. Or, an increase in the recipient's financial assets, which may render the recipient ineligible, would also prompt a recomputation. Against this backdrop, simplifying policy on food or shelter support to recipients from family and friends is especially compelling. The study concludes that two benefit restruc?turing options considered would streamline current in-kind support and maintenance (ISM) policy by eliminating ISM-related benefit reductions, raising benefits for the 9% of recipients with ISM. This article begins with an overview of the current benefit structure and rules for counting ISM, highlighting shortcomings and reviewing past simplification efforts. The article focuses on key subgroups of recipients, in terms of changes in SSI benefits and poverty status.