The primary mission of government is protecting its citizens. Protection comes in many forms, however, including organizing military defense and police to thwart crime, and, in Western countries, protecting the public’s health and welfare. In our country laws passed by Congress enable and sometimes require, government to intervene with financial, as well as in-kind, assistance when people are too poor and too disabled to fend for themselves. Some adults with disabilities with little or no work histories, children with severe disabilities, and poor, elderly people are eligible for Supplemental Security Income (SSI). SSI recipients are poor and are Medicaid eligible.
Many disabled adults who qualify for SSI live with family. The SSI grant is too low to support most recipients who would prefer to live on their own. Moreover, many recipients have physical and intellectual disabilities that prevent them from doing so. They need care and support from loved ones. Personal care attendant service hours provided by Medicaid are inadequate and must often be supplemented by family caregivers.
The Administration, which has come up with money for tax breaks for billionaires, bombs and missiles for the war in Iran, and ballrooms for the President, is considering reducing the amount of the monthly grant to an adult who lives with family members by the value of the bedroom provided. This “nickel and diming” of the poorest and most in need will hurt families that rely on this money. If the proposed cuts to SSI recipients are adopted many families may choose to institutionalize their disabled family member because they can no longer afford to provide care and housing. This will cause the cost of their care to increase as government/taxpayers will end up providing housing and personal care.
This effort has nothing to do with the elimination of fraud, waste and abuse by recipients of government funds. Instead, it forced more than 30 Down syndrome organizations to write Social Security Commissioner Frank Bisignano. They told him that this money is a lifeline. It keeps severely disabled people out of institutions, able to live in their communities, in group situations and/or with loved ones who are primary or supplemental caregivers. The proposal being considered currently by Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Director Russell Vought and Commissioner Bisignano would have the Social Security Administration examine SSI recipients’ living circumstances and impute a bedroom value for recipients living at home. It is said the maximum bedroom value imputed would be around $300 per month. Taking $300 a month from already poor people apparently seems like a good idea to some bureaucrats.
Unfortunately, for those proposing these cuts, this type of case review plus bedroom value analysis requires Social Security Administration (SSA) staff. Staff is in short supply at SSA. The Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) laid off thousands of agency employees. Who, on the stretched-thin staff, would implement the proposed policy of imputing value to bedrooms and shared bedrooms?
Will SSA adopt this policy of deducting from the SSI recipient’s benefit the value of the bedroom provided by family? While it is currently under consideration, it will not be empathy, kindness or compassion that stops the Administration from adopting this cruelest of cuts. It will probably not be adopted because it will create huge gaps in the care system for poor people with disabilities. Relatives will be unable to house some disabled SSI recipients, and they would require institutional care, paid for by taxpayers, at far greater expense to Medicaid and taxpayers. Someone will realize that this is an expensive solution to something that’s not a problem.
Opinions expressed are solely those of the writer(s) and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of Able News at The Viscardi Center and/or The Viscardi Center.