AB 796: Public social services: SSI/SSP.

Existing law provides for the State Supplementary Program for the Aged, Blind and Disabled (SSP), which requires the State Department of Social Services to contract with the United States Secretary of Health and Human Services to make payments to SSP recipients to supplement Supplemental Security Income (SSI) payments made available pursuant to the federal Social Security Act.

Under existing law, benefit payments under SSP are calculated by establishing the maximum level of nonexempt income and federal SSI and state SSP benefits for each category of eligible recipient. The state SSP payment is the amount required, when added to the nonexempt income and SSI benefits available to the recipient, to provide the maximum benefit payment. Existing law prohibits, for each calendar year, commencing with the 2011 calendar year, any cost-of-living adjustment from being made to the maximum benefit payment unless otherwise specified by statute, except for the pass along of any cost-of-living increase in the federal SSI benefits. Existing law continuously appropriates funds for the implementation of SSP.

This bill would reinstate the cost-of-living adjustment beginning January 1 of the 2018 calendar year. The bill would also require a maximum aid payment provided to an individual or a married couple that does not equal or exceed 96% of the 2017 federal poverty level based on family size commencing January 1, 2019,, level, or 100% of the 2018 federal poverty level based on family size, level, as specified, to be increased to an amount that equals 96% or 100% of the federal poverty level, respectively.

By reinstating the cost-of-living adjustment and by increasing the amount of benefits paid under the SSP, this bill would make an appropriation.