On March 7, Senators Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) introduced a bill that would dramatically increase Supplemental Security Income (SSI) resource limits and income exclusions, as well as eliminate penalties for applicants who receive in-kind food and shelter.
The Supplemental Security Income Restoration Act of 2014, S. 2089, calls for an $8,000 increase to SSI's longstanding $2,000 individual resource limit, making the new resource ceiling $10,000, and it would also raise a couple's resource limit from the current cap of $3,000 to $15,000.
Under current law, the first $20 of an individual's unearned income does not count towards his monthly SSI income limit. The proposed legislation would increase this monthly general income exclusion to $110. In addition, the earned income exclusion would rise from $65 per month to $357. Both the resource limits and the income exclusions would be indexed for inflation beginning in 2016.
Finally, the bill would also eliminate the penalty on beneficiaries who receive in-kind support and maintenance, commonly known as the one-third reduction rule, so beneficiaries can live rent-free in someone else's home without seeing their SSI awards reduced.
In a press release, Sen. Brown explained that "inflation has significantly decreased the ability to qualify for SSI benefits, hurting seniors, the disabled and blind, and more than one million children." Sen. Brown's office argues that the current resource and income limits prevent people from saving and leave many SSI beneficiaries below the poverty line.
To read the full text of the Supplemental Security Income Restoration Act of 2014 (S. 2089), click here.
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