Social Security update: SSI announces new campaign expanding outreach
Misty Severi
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The Social Security Administration announced a new campaign on Thursday that seeks to raise awareness and access to its Supplemental Security Income program.
The new campaign targets rural and urban areas where SSI applications are in decline, and focuses on people who are facing financial hardship and are not aware that they could qualify for the monthly SSI payments.
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“Helping eligible people access critical benefits, including SSI, is part of Social Security’s core mission,” Acting Commissioner of Social Security Kilolo Kijakazi said in a press release. “Underserved communities face additional challenges, like unreliable or no access to the internet and computers, that widen the divide. Social Security’s campaign strives to reach people in their communities to tell them about the eligibility criteria for SSI, and how to contact us online at www.ssa.gov/ssi or by phone for more information or an appointment to apply.”
The program provides monthly payments to adults age 65 and older, or to adults and children with a disability or blindness that “very seriously limits their daily activities for a period of 12 months or more or may be expected to result in death.”
The new campaign will raise awareness by promoting the federal program through television public service announcements, radio ads, mailed ads, ads displayed on bus shelters, and other large signs, according to the release.
The program is also expanding its online reach through social media, digital, YouTube ads, and search engine marketing.
Three groups receive payments from SSI, with each group receiving a different amount. Individual filers receive $914 every month, eligible couples receive $1,371, and essential persons, who live with people receiving SSI payments and provide them with necessary care, get a monthly payment of $458.
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The next disbursement of the SSI payments will go out in exactly one week, on June 1, with a second round going out on June 30. SSI payments typically just go out on the first of the month, but a second disbursement takes the place of the following month’s payment if the first of that month is on a weekend or holiday. July 1 will be on a Saturday, so a double payment occurs in June.
The payment is separate from the regular Social Security benefits which go to retirees.