SSI and Marriage

Does anyone happen to know if an adult who is permanently disabled and on SSI gets married, will they lose their SSI? Will they now take the spouses income/bank accounts into consideration in deciding the disabled persons' future payments? Or do they consider the individual's disability separately (since they are permanently disabled, their regular payments would continue, as long as they remain disabled)?

Hope that made sense. Thank you!
 
O

OTE

Guest
They won't lose it just because they're married but basically they'd have to re-qualify. Keep in mind they have 10 days from the marriage to report it. Yes, the spouse's assets count as the disabled person's assets. It's the same concept as the parent's assets counting toward the child. "Resources" (aka assets) and income are determined by the family, not by an individual. But the more people there are in the family the higher the allowed amount of income. A couple is allowed $3,000 in assets vs $2,000 for a single person. Here's the SSI pubs:

http://ssa.gov/

In terms of if they don't get legally married then it's the "living arrangements" that would be the issue.

Bottom line answer to your question is that the spouse's income and assets count. The length or severity of the disability is not relevant for these purposes.
 

dreamer

New Member
if it is for sure SSI then yes, marriage can complicate things. If it is ssda....based on what a person paid in and how many quarters they worked etc..it should be less of a complication.
 
Sorry for the delay in responding, but thank you for the information.

Dreamer: They receive SSI/Medicare due to the lingering disability. I was just wondering if that person got married, would they lose their SSI?

OTE: What about if the new spouse brings assets "into the marriage". Would that now count too?? It doesn't seem right that they would stop them from receiving the payments, just because they got married. It is such a small amount to live on and they can't expect that the their new spouse could support them without their contribution too.
 
O

OTE

Guest
Unfortunately, yes, they do expect the new spouse to support them. Remember that it's a matter of degrees. Suppose the new spouse was Malcolm Forbes. Should the gov't be paying Forbe's wife "Federal welfare?" Wouldn't we all be appalled?

So, yes, the new spouse's assets that exist today come into the rules re "resources" and income. In terms of getting rid of those assets before the marriage I don't know. There are definitely rules about disposing of assets in contemplation of welfare, medicaid, SSI. There's a "look back" test at a minimum.

I also forgot to mention that there are rules about common law marriage.

If there are a lot of assets involved they need to see a lawyer.
 
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