SSI to move its core disability program application online

The Social Security Administration is launching a yearslong effort to simplify and move online the application for Supplemental Security Income, a means-tested program for people with disabilities and older adults with little to no income or resources. 

Currently, the application is on paper and typically takes about two hours to complete with help from an SSA employee, the agency told Nextgov/FCW previously. 

The initial goal, slated for December, is to set up a fully online, simplified application for SSI. The intention is to make it faster and easier to apply for benefits and reduce the processing time for initial decisions.

“People in our communities who need this crucial safety net deserve the dignity of an application process that is less burdensome and more accessible than what we now have, and we’re committed to achieving that vision over the next few years,” said SSA Commissioner Martin O’Malley in a statement. 

The agency is leveraging an existing system where people can apply to other types of SSA benefits, called iClaim, for the new online SSI application. 

People can’t currently fully file an SSI application online using the iClaim system, although they can make an appointment with SSA to establish their “protective filing date,” according to David Camp, CEO of the National Organization of Social Security Claimants’ Representatives. That starts the clock for what SSA will pay in “past-due benefits” once a person is approved.

The agency says that the online application will be plain language, rather than full of government legalese, and will be pre-populated by information SSA already has about the person when possible. 

It will also be shorter than the current application, containing only what SSA calls “basic eligibility questions.”

The rollout will be limited to first-time applicants between 18 to 65 years old, who have never married and are concurrently applying for Social Security benefits, according to SSA. 

But the agency says that it’s looking to expand availability of the online application to all applicants in 2025 and 2026. 

For now, that excludes children and people who are married, said Camp, noting that both groups are required by statute to answer additional, complicated questions that make it more difficult to simplify their application.

SSA also plans to incorporate the simplifications into its in-person, phone, mobile and paper-based application processes, and intends to make a simplified adult application and separate application for children, something advocates and other stakeholders asked for, according to an agency press officer.

Claims for SSI — “a federal form of poverty relief that has a dramatic effect on homelessness, on the most dire of circumstances for disabled Americans” — have gone down since the pandemic “to such an extent that we have to address it as a crisis,” said Camp. 

“There are eligible, disabled, poor claimants out there who are not applying, who are unable to, encountering too many barriers, not aware of the program,” he continued. “And this update, this modernization, is a significant step toward increasing the number of eligible individuals who can receive that form of SSI relief.”

This isn’t the first time the agency has tried to move this application online. It started an effort in 2022, although O’Malley paused the work after taking the helm of the agency late last year due to concerns about offline users being the last to see the streamlined version. Now the agency is moving forward. 

“Over the past year, we have asked many applicants and advocates — as well as our workforce — how we could make the SSI application process easier and simpler. Now, we are taking an important first step to do just that,” O’Malley said in a statement. 

The preference among advocates was for an online application in addition to future simplifications, according to an agency press official.

The agency described the effort as a “formidable challenge” due to the “inherent complexity of the program” in a Federal Register notice published today.

“The SSI program legally requires SSA to request extensive amounts of 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 this burden and improve access to SSI.”