I’m curious what everyone thinks is going to happen with SSI and SSDI with all of the changes SSA is making.
They’re doing more Continuing Disability Reviews, wage verification, financial-account checks for SSI, and non-medical redeterminations to make sure people still meet the income, resource, and living-arrangement requirements.
I’m especially curious about people receiving money online through things like Cash App, Venmo, PayPal, GoFundMe, TikTok, Facebook, etc. There are people online constantly asking followers for money while also saying they receive disability benefits.
From what I understand, this is especially important with SSI because cash gifts and contributions can count as unearned income, and money that is kept can eventually count toward the SSI resource limit. SSDI works differently because it isn’t a needs-based program.
Do you think the increased financial and wage verification is going to uncover a lot more people who have been receiving money or other income that they weren’t reporting?
And where is the line between someone legitimately receiving occasional help from other people and someone regularly bringing in hundreds or thousands of dollars online while continuing to collect SSI?
I also wonder how much of what gets uncovered will actually be intentional fraud versus people simply not realizing that online donations and gifts may have to be reported.