Bills Introduced To Extend SSI Eligibility Two Years

IMMIGRANTS & PUBLIC BENEFITS

Supplemental Security Income (SSI)

Bills introduced to extend SSI eligibility two years
Immigrants' Rights Update, Vol. 18, No. 7, November 8, 2004

As thousands of immigrant seniors and persons with disabilities face termination of their Supplemental Security Income (SSI) grants, legislation to extend their eligibility for SSI has been introduced in the Senate. Senators Gordon Smith (R-OR), Herb Kohl (D-WI), and Richard Lugar (R-IN) have introduced S. 2623, the SSI Extension for Elderly and Disabled Refugees Act, which would extend for two additional years the eligibility for SSI of refugees, asylees, and others who were permitted to immigrate to the United States for humanitarian reasons (S. 2623 refers to the latter as “humanitarian immigrants”).

SSI provides assistance to cover basic necessities for seniors and persons with disabilities who have little or no other income. Refugees, asylees, and other “humanitarian immigrants” who qualify for SSI are subject to a 1996 welfare law provision that limits their eligibility for SSI benefits to the first seven years after they were granted the relevant immigration status, unless they become U.S. citizens.

A combination of immigration backlogs, processing delays, statutory caps on the number of asylees who can adjust their status to lawful permanent residence, as well as language and other barriers have made it impossible for many of these immigrants to become citizens within the seven-year period mentioned above. According to the Social Security Administration, over 2,000 immigrants had lost benefits by Dec. 2003, because their seven-year period of eligibility had expired. In the coming years, as many as 9,000 immigrant seniors and persons with disabilities will “time out” of the SSI program each year.

In March of this year, a similar bill was introduced in the House of Representatives by Reps. Benjamin Cardin (D-MD), Amory Houghton (R-NY), Nancy Johnson (D-CT), Phil English (R-PA), and Sander Levin (D-MI).

The House and Senate bills would grant two more years of eligibility to the immigrant groups that face termination of SSI benefits. Under these bills, eligible refugees, asylees, and other “humanitarian immigrants” would be able to receive SSI benefits during the first nine years (rather than seven years) after having been granted the qualifying immigration status. The bills differ slightly in their treatment of those who already have lost benefits. The House bill (HR 4035) would provide a complete “reach-back,” allowing those who already have lost benefits to secure an additional two years of SSI benefits. Under the Senate bill, however, “timed-out” immigrants would qualify for SSI only if they still are within the nine-year window of eligibility. For example, a person who entered the U.S. as a refugee in Sept. 1997 would have lost his or her eligibility for SSI in Sept. 2004 (unless the person became a U.S. citizen before Sept. 2004). If the extension provided for in the Senate bill is enacted on Dec. 1, 2004, the refugee would be eligible to receive SSI for an additional one year and 10 months, until Sept. 2006. But if the extension provided for in the House bill is enacted, the refugee would be eligible for two additional full years of SSI benefits.

Like President Bush’s proposed budget for 2005, both bills provide that the extension (to nine years of eligibility) would expire in 2007; after 2007, a person immigrating to the U.S. in one of the qualifying immigration categories (refugee, asylee, etc.) would be eligible for SSI only during the first seven years after having been granted that immigration status.

It is possible that an extension of SSI eligibility for immigrant seniors and persons with disabilities could be incorporated into “must-pass” legislation that Congress will consider during its post-election lame duck session.