Senate Bill S1998

                                 
BILL NUMBER: S1998

SPONSOR: MAY
 
TITLE OF BILL:

An act to amend the social services law, in relation to defining "closed
period of eligibility" for purposes of certain supplemental security
income and including such time period in the eligibility requirements of
such supplemental security income

 
PURPOSE:

Provides a definition of "closed period of eligibility," and that an
individual who has been awarded supplemental security income (SSI) bene-
fits for a closed period of eligibility will be eligible to receive
payments from the State Supplemental Program (SSP).

 
SUMMARY OF SPECIFIC PROVISIONS:

Section one amends subdivisions one, three and ten of the section 208 of
the social services law, as added by chapter 1080 of the laws on 1970 by
adding a new subdivision 13.
              

Section two amends paragraph b of subdivision one section 209 of the
social services law as added by chapter 180 of the laws of 1974.

Section three sets forth the effective date.

 
JUSTIFICATION:

Many senior New Yorkers and those with disabilities rely on the Supple-
mental Security Income (SSI), a needs-based program available only to
those with limited income and resources. In New York, SSI has a federal
component and a state component, which is known as the State Supple-
mental Program (SSP). The State took over administration of the SSP from
the federal government in 2014 and realized a multi-million dollars
savings annually as a result. Currently, New York's SSP provides a
monthly benefit of $23 or $87 for individuals and $46 or $104 for
couples, depending on living arrangement.

People may be simultaneously eligible for both SSI and Social Security
Disability Insurance (SSDI), which is based on their earnings, and may
apply for both. If the SSDI claim is approved, the beneficiary will be
subject to a five-month waiting period before receipt of the first SSDI
payment, pursuant to 20 C.F.R. § 404.315. During this five-month waiting
period, claimants with little or no other income may be eligible to
receive SSI benefits, which are not subject to a waiting period.

Eligibility for SSP benefits when people become eligible for SSI, and
SSP benefits are payable as of the month that SSI payments begin.  Some
of these claimants will no longer be eligible for SSI or SSP payments
once their SSDI benefits begin if the SSDI amount is higher than the SSI
Federal Benefit Rate plus the SSP amount.

Because of appeals and delays in the administrative process, the Social
Security Administration does not typically make a determination regard-
ing SSI eligibility until well after the five-month SSDI waiting period
has run. Additionally, federal rules require that the agency process an
SSI claim before processing any concurrent SSDI claim. As a result, many
people who apply for both SSI and SSDI with SSDI benefit amounts greater
than the SSI rate but who otherwise satisfy the financial criteria of
SSI will invariably be granted SSI only to have it terminated when the
SSDI claim is approved. They will be paid retroactive SSI by the Social
Security Administration, which often encompasses the five-month SSDI
waiting period time.

In January 2021, OTDA adopted new SSP administrative regulations.  These
regulations make a number of so-called "clarifying" revisions, including
a "clarifying" revision requiring an individual or couple to be in
active receipt of SSI benefits to be eligible for SSP - including retro-
active SSP payments. The OTDA regulations now preclude the receipt of
the same retroactive benefits for a subset of potential SSP recipients,
including those individuals or couples who would only be eligible for
SSP benefits during their five-month waiting period for SSDI benefits.
The estimated population of affected recipients is several thousand very
low-income seniors and/or New Yorkers with disabilities.

By limiting recipients to "active participants," the OTDA regulations
undo decades of policy and practice with respect to the payment of
retroactive SSP benefits. The changes also administratively subvert
three Court decisions that directed the agency to pay SSP benefits to
people who were eligible for SSI for a closed period. In addition, if
the program was still being administered by the federal government,
seniors and New Yorkers with disabilities would still be receiving SSP
benefits during a closed period.

Finally, when OTDA proposed assuming responsibility for the adminis-
tration of New York's SSI State Supplement Program in 2012, it promised
to put in place "an effective and efficient SSP project...., and that
the vulnerable individuals served by this program will not be negatively
impacted by this change." Once New York State took over administration
of the SSP program, OTDA stopped paying these retroactive benefits that
had previously been paid when the SSP was administered by SSA, despite
being directed by both its own fair hearing bureau and the Courts to
continue paying them. The resulting new regulations do not live up to
that promise, and instead are doing harm to exceptionally vulnerable New
Yorkers and their families.

 
FISCAL IMPLICATIONS:

Undetermined.

 
PRIOR LEGISLATIVE HISTORY:

2021-2022 - S.7035 (May) / A.7528 (L. Rosenthal)

 
EFFECTIVE DATE:
This act shall take effect immediately.