The Social Security Administration is launching a years-long effort to simplify and make available online the application for Supplemental Security Income, an income-tested program for people with disabilities and the elderly with little or no income or assets.
Currently, the application is submitted on paper and typically takes about two hours to complete with the help of an SSA employee, the agency said. Nextgov/FCW previously.
The first goal, scheduled for December, is to create a fully online, simplified application for SSI to make applying for benefits faster and easier and reduce processing time for initial decisions.
“The people in our communities who need this critical safety net deserve the dignity of an application process that is less burdensome and more accessible than what we have now, and we are committed to making that vision a reality in the years to come,” SSA Commissioner Martin O’Malley said in a statement.
For the new online SSI application, the agency is using an existing system called iClaim, where people can apply for other types of SSA benefits.
Currently, people cannot submit an SSI claim entirely online through the iClaim system, although they can schedule an appointment with the SSA to set their “protection claim appointment,” according to David Camp, CEO of the National Organization of Social Security Claimants’ Representatives. This begins the period for the SSA to pay “past due benefits” once the claim is approved.
The agency says the online application will be written in plain language and not full of government jargon, and, where possible, will be pre-populated with information the SSA already has about the person.
It will also be shorter than the current application and will contain only what the SSA calls “basic eligibility questions.”
According to the SSA, the rollout is limited to first-time claimants between the ages of 18 and 65 who have never been married and are simultaneously applying for Social Security benefits.
However, the agency says it plans to extend the availability of online applications to all applicants in 2025.
Children and married people are currently exempt from this, Camp said, pointing out that both groups are legally required to answer additional, complicated questions that make it difficult to simplify their application.
The SSA also plans to integrate the simplifications into its in-person, telephone, mobile and paper-based application processes and intends to provide a simplified application for adults and a separate application for children, which has been requested by advocates and other stakeholders, according to an agency spokesperson.
Applications for SSI – “a government form of anti-poverty assistance that has a dramatic impact on homelessness, the worst situation of all for disabled Americans” – have “fallen so sharply since the pandemic that we have to consider it a crisis,” Camp said.
“There are eligible, disabled, poor applicants who don’t apply, who don’t have the ability, who face too many obstacles and aren’t aware of the program,” he continued. “And this update, this modernization is a significant step toward increasing the number of eligible people who can receive this form of SSI assistance.”
This is not the first time the agency has tried to bring this application online. It began an initiative to do so in 2022, although O’Malley paused work after taking the helm of the agency late last year, fearing that offline users would be the last to see the streamlined version. Now the agency is moving forward.
“Over the past year, we’ve asked many applicants and advocates – as well as our staff – how we can make the SSI application process simpler and more straightforward. Now we’re taking an important first step to do just that,” O’Malley said in a statement.
In addition to future simplifications, supporters would also prefer online applications, said a spokesperson for the agency.
In a statement published today in the Federal Register, the agency described the project as a “tremendous challenge” due to the “inherent complexity of the program.”
“The SSI program legally requires SSA to request extensive information from SSI applicants to make accurate eligibility and payment determinations,” it says. “The framework of the SSI program will not change… However, we recognize that the current process is burdensome and challenging for the public, and we are doing what we can to reduce that burden and improve access to SSI.”
