Jennifer Cronenberg, NOSSCR Senior Counsel and Director of Legal Information

The day is finally here when three important SSI regulatory changes take effect. But what exactly will these changes look like come Monday, September 30, 2024, and how should you advise your clients about the implementation of these changes? Let’s take a look.

Like all things SSA, the changes are complex and should be read in their entirety, but here’s a basic summary of what’s included:

• Expand the Definition of a Public Assistance Household
  • Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) (aka “food stamps”) will be included as an additional means-tested public income-maintenance (PIM) program (it had previously been excluded);
  • A public assistance household (PA) will now be one in which any other household member receives at least one PIM payment (it had previously been every other household member).

• Expansion of the Rental Subsidy Policy for Supplemental Security Income (SSI) Applicants and Recipients
  • An applicant/recipient will no longer be considered to be receiving In-Kind Support and Maintenance (ISM) if the amount of monthly required rent that they must pay equals or exceeds the presumed maximum value (PMV).
    • This means that a person can pay reduced rent to a friend of family member and not get hit with the ISM reduction, so long as their monthly discounted rate amount equals or exceeds the PMV.

• Omitting Food From In-Kind Support and Maintenance Calculations
  • SSA will no longer consider food expenses in their ISM calculations.

The first clues we have for how SSA will process these changes came this week in the form of an Emergency Message (EM):

• EM-24047: SSI Living Arrangements Regulatory Changes – Technician Instructions for Identifying and Processing Affected Cases

This EM details complex instructions that the Field Office (FO) and Regional staff should follow as they effort implementation of these changes. Will everything go smoothly? Certainly not. But here are some tips that you can follow to try and help:

1. If your client is paying some money to a friend or family member for monthly rent, encourage them to a) make sure it equals or exceeds the PMV, and b) put this “rental agreement” in writing, including the start date of payments. Having this documentation will help prevent getting hit unnecessarily with the 1/3 benefit reduction.

2. Encourage your clients to get documentation of their SNAP benefits AND to get documentation of the other household member’s PIM payment. The client should have this documentation on hand when visiting the FO.

3. If your client is eligible for a benefit change based on one of these modified rules, encourage them to take their documentation to SSA and ask for a change in benefit amount asap. While these changes are not retroactive, they do apply beginning this month, September 2024, so swift action is recommended.

4. Consider reaching out to your clients advising them to check their statements for ISM reductions. Our friend Andrew Kazakes of the Legal Aid Foundation of Los Angeles graciously shared the following language for potential use with your clients:

Important! If your SSI has been lowered because SSA says you get help with housing or food costs—or because you are living in someone else’s home—you may be eligible to increase your monthly SSI benefits by hundreds of dollars. This is because Social Security rules have just changed to make it easier to remove this common SSI reduction.

How do I know if I can benefit from this rule change?

Check if your SSI gets lowered because of “In-Kind Support & Maintenance” or “ISM.” You can call or visit Social Security to ask if this rule applies to you. Details vary, but some signs this rule applies are if your SSI is reduced by around 1/3 of the full SSI benefit in your state, or you got a notice counting the “Value of food and shelter” as your income.

We have heard that SSA will be sending out an email blast to SSI recipients who might be impacted by these changes, but we have not yet seen the text of that email (should you come across a copy from one of your clients, please redact and forward it to me at jennifer.cronenberg@nosscr.org). At NOSSCR and the advocacy community at large, we are very interested to hear how implementation of these changes is going at the local level. In the coming weeks, we will be releasing a survey to collect data on the success of this roll-out so that we can troubleshoot any widespread problems with the administration. So please touch base with your clients to better understand what they’re seeing out there, and be sure to share that feedback with me (either by completing our upcoming survey or emailing me directly). And remember, patience is going to be required, but these are long-fought-for positive changes that will ultimately improve the lives of many beneficiaries.

SSA has also updated the following POMS to match these changes (with more updates expected soon):

• POMS SI 00835.130: Public Assistance Households
• POMS SI 00835.380: Rental Subsidies

Finally, here’s a look at the “Policy in Focus” document that SSA released to their staff this week: