Supplemental Security Income

Supplemental Security Income (SSI) is a monthly allowance given to lower class elderly (65 and older), blind, and disabled people by the US federal government. The program, which is overseen by the Social Security Administration (SSA), gets its funding from the US Treasury's general funds--not Social Security trust funds. Recipients typically receive checks the first day of each month for the current month, unlike Social Security benefits, which apply to the previous month. The base amount of SSI is the same throughout the US, but state governments have the jurisdiction to bolster that with an additional stipend. Contact SSA to determine how much extra your state hands out.

If you are applying for SSI, you should review the manual titled What You Need to Know when You get Supplemental Security Income. If you have a child who is disabled or blind, they are also eligible to receive SSI. All the information you will need to know regarding this topic can be found in Benefits for Children with Disabilities.

The SSI program was established as part of President Richard Nixon's attempt to transform our country's welfare program. In that era, each state had individual addressed these needs individually with Aid to the Blind, Aid to the Permanently and Totally Disabled, and Aid to the Elderly. Nixon and his team believed these programs should be consolidated, managed by the federal government, and administered by the Social Security Administration. As a result, SSI was spawned to eradicate the discrepancies from state to state such as varying disability standards and income and resource requirements that a number of people deemed unreasonable and even unjust. Once the state programs had been federalized, SSI's inception became official in January 1974, and SSA ran it. The Nixon Administration chose SSA because it had prior experience with national disability as it pertained to the Social Security Disability Insurance Benefits program that had been running since 1956 under the Old AGE, Survivors, and Disability Insurance programs related to FICA payroll taxes.

The topic of SSI can be difficult to comprehend. If you would like to know more about it, a Florida social security disability lawyer can provide some valuable insight.