Administrative Change Will Help Many SSI "Not Qualified"-Legislation Still Needed to Protect Large Numbers of Others

IMMIGRANTS & PUBLIC BENEFITS

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SSI Redeterminations for Nonqualified Citizens

Social Security Administration Nonqualified Noncitizen Study Findings

ADMINISTRATIVE CHANGE WILL HELP MANY SSI "NOT QUALIFIED"—LEGISLATION STILL NEEDED TO PROTECT LARGE NUMBERS OF OTHERS
No. 98-13, August 14, 1998

On August 13, 1998, the Social Security Administration (SSA) announced an important change in policy for Supplemental Security Income (SSI) recipients coded as "not qualified" in its administrative data.

SSA now will continue to send checks, even after the September 30th deadline, until it has either contacted the recipient and redetermined eligibility, or has been unable to contact the recipient after a new notice followed by a set of additional procedures.

Under the new guidelines, which require SSA eligibiliy workers to apply the normal rules used by SSA to "closeout" individual cases, SSA will take the following steps before suspending assistance:

Attempt to contact the recipient by phone to determine if additional time is needed and to offer assistance;
Review the file for names of relatives, friends, or medical treating sources who may be able to help;
Pursue known sources of assistance, including community organizations established through outreach activities.

If, after the new procedures have been followed, the immigrant still has not been located, or is determined to be not qualified, then the immigrant's case will be suspended and SSA will attempt to recoup any payments made after September 30, 1998, as overpayments.

The change in policy was prompted by a nationwide survey conducted by SSA last month that confirmed what advocates have been saying for a long time: that most of those shown in the SSA database as "not qualified" are erroneously coded. For the survey, SSA used an abbreviated version of the above described closeout procedure, and was able to contact and determine the eligibility of more than 90 percent of those in the survey group who were currently receiving benefits.

The survey results suggest that even under the revised policy, large numbers of elderly and disabled qualified and qualified-eligible immigrants will fall through the cracks and be cut off once they are redetermined. These individuals can only be helped if legislation is passed before Congress adjourns in early October.

Of those reached by SSA, more than two-thirds were able to prove that they were citizens or qualified aliens. But another 7.5 percent who thought they were citizens or qualified aliens were unable to present sufficient documentation of their status within the two-week period (SSA requires original, unexpired documents). More than half of the remainder either appeared eligible to adjust to qualified alien status or actually had actions pending with the INS to do so.

SSA notes that many of those who could not prove qualified status face enormous mental and physical health obstacles, as well as language barriers, that impede their ability to obtain the documents necessary to prove status or to adjust status.