July 12, 2016
8:00am-4:00pm
Carnegie Library at Mt. Vernon Square
801 K St NW, Washington, DC 20001
The Social Security Advisory Board welcomes policy makers from Capitol Hill and federal and state agencies; the research and academic community; child, welfare, aging and disability advocates and others to join us at a policy forum discussing four main areas of concern within the Supplemental Security Income (SSI) program. The day-long event will include panels on the topics of resource limits, the rules for in-kind support and maintenance and living arrangements, policy and practice in financing child welfare programs, and how children fare in the SSI program, particularly children in the foster care system. Registrations are being accepted for the morning, afternoon or full day.
Forum Presentations
Material prepared for the Policy Forum on the SSI Program is available below. For those presenters who are not using slides, we have included material provided to the Board that represents some of the ideas they are expected to discuss. Some presenters did not provide any material in advance so are not listed below.
I. SSI Resource Limits and ABLE Act
- Ken Brown, Office of Supplemental Security Income and Program Integrity Policy, Office of Income Security Programs, Social Security Administration
PRESENTATION SLIDES: Resource Policy in the SSI Program
Summary, Resources and the SSI Program (3 pages)
- Chris Rodriguez, Senior Public Policy Advisor, National Disability Institute
Fact Sheet: National Disability Institute ABLE National Resource Center
- Ezra Levin, Associate Director of Government Affairs, Corporation for Enterprise Development
PRESENTATION SLIDES: Asset Limits: Impact and Policy
- Romina Boccia, Deputy Director, Thomas A. Roe Institute for Economic Policy Studies and Grover M. Hermann Research Fellow, Heritage Foundation
Heritage Foundation Backgrounder: How the ABLE Act Would Expand the Welfare State, by Robert Rector and Romina Boccia (6pp.)
II. SSI Policies on In-Kind Support and Maintenance (ISM)
- Ken Brown, Office of Supplemental Security Income and Program Integrity Policy, Office of Income Security Programs, Social Security Administration
PRESENTATION SLIDES: In-Kind Support and Maintenance in the SSI Program
Summary: Living Arrangements and the SSI Program (2 pages)
- Bernie Wixon and Jim Sears, Office of Research, Evaluation, and Statistics, Social Security Administration
PRESENTATION SLIDES: ISM Alternatives: Can we rely on household composition and family ties?
Summary: Can we use household composition and family ties as a proxy for receipt of in-kind support? (1p)
III. Policy and Practice on Child Welfare Programs
- Ted McCann, Assistant to the Speaker for Policy, Office of Speaker Paul P. Ryan, U.S. House of Representatives
Summary: Speaker Ryan’s Proposal “A Better Way” (4pp.)
Full Document: “A Better Way” (35pp.)
- LaDonna Pavetti, Vice President for Family Income Support Policy, Center for Budget and Policy Priorities
CBPP Commentary by Robert Greenstein, “House GOP’s Attention to Poverty Is Welcome, But Plan Is Seriously Flawed” (4pp.)
- Daniel Hatcher, Professor of Law, University of Baltimore Law School
Article: The Poverty Industry: How Foster Care Agencies Exploit Children in their Care (3pp.)
- Leslie Jose Lyons, Program Director for Nationwide Social Security Advocacy Management Services, Public Consulting Group
Fact Sheet: Public Consulting Group’s Advocacy Management for States’ Foster Care Programs (2pp.)
IV. SSI Youth Transitions to Adulthood
- Jeffrey Hemmeter, Deputy Director, Office of Program Development, Office of Research, Demonstration and Employment Support, Social Security Administration
PRESENTATION SLIDES: Successfully Transitioning Child SSI Recipients and Families to Adulthood
- Manasi Deshpande, Assistant Professor of Economics, University of Chicago
PRESENTATION SLIDES: The Effect of Age 18 Redeterminations on Transitioning SSI Youth
Presentation Materials
Related SSAB Publications
Public Law 104-193 requires that members of the Social Security Advisory Board (SSAB) be given an opportunity, either individually or jointly, to include their views in the Social Security Administration’s annual report to the President and Congress on the Supplemental Security Income (SSI) program. The following Statements address most closely the issues addressed in this current Forum:
Publication Materials
Background Material
Data:
SSI Annual Statistical Report, 2014 (Office of Research, Evaluation and Statistics, SSA)
2015 Annual Report of the SSI Program (Office of the Chief Actuary, SSA)
Resource Limit Rules and the Achieving a Better Life Experience (ABLE) Act:
SSA’s fact sheet on the resource limits
National Disability Institute background on the ABLE Act
Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, Policy Brief: Protecting Low-Income Families’ Savings
The Heritage Foundation’s Report: How the ABLE Act Would Expand the Welfare State
The Retirement Security Project Report: Protecting Low-income Families’ Savings (see below)
In-Kind Support and Maintenance (ISM) Rules:
SSA’s fact sheet on living arrangements and ISM
SSA research on simplifying ISM: “Simplifying the Supplemental Security Income Program: Options for Eliminating the Counting of In-kind Support and Maintenance”, 2008
Poverty Policy:
Daniel Hatcher’s The Poverty Industry: How Foster Care Agencies Exploit Children in their Care
The SSI Program for Children:
SSA Background on the Youth Transition Demonstration
SSA Background on Promoting Readiness of Minors in the SSI Program (PROMISE)
Congressional Research Service Report on Foster Care: “Child Welfare: Health Care Needs of Children in Foster Care and Related Federal Issues”, 2014. (see below)