Friend on SSI applying for Pandemic Unemployment in California gets $9500

[jomustard]

What is the name of your state? California

MY friend is on SSI disability in California. He receives $850 a month to live on. He normally does recycle and other odd jobs to supplement his income just to get by. Someone told him he could file for Pandemic Unemployment for gig work. He did and is supposed to be getting $9500 retroactive.
So how does this work? I am assuming he can not get his SSI and unemployment at the same time. He should report the unemployment benefits and pay back the $850 for 3 months and keep the Unemployment. Will he still keep his Medi-Cal benefits while he is getting the Pandemic Unemployment? Will he need to reapply all over again for SSI when the unemployment runs out>?

 

[FlyingRon]

My sense is that because of his disability and other reasons, he's not supposed to be eligible. If he lies about his disability status, etc.. he might find the government trying to claw back the funds from him when they end up cross-referencing the payment records. He may be in for big trouble.

Any amount of income he received from his odd jobs should have been reported to SSA and anything over $65 in a month will start to reduce the SSI benefit, except for certain things considered irregular or infrequent (not enough information here to tell but it sounds like if he could use it to count for PUA, it wouldn't qualify as such).

If he gets the PUA, then those payments also count as income for SSI purposes. Anything over than $20 will reduce (or eliminate) the SSI. $9500 as aa lump almost certainly will blot out SSI benefits for a time. I think he likely is safe on the Medi-Cal issue. He's likely still below the income threshold there.

 

[Zigner]

What is the name of your state? California

MY friend is on SSI disability in California. He receives $850 a month to live on. He normally does recycle and other odd jobs to supplement his income just to get by. Someone told him he could file for Pandemic Unemployment for gig work. He did and is supposed to be getting $9500 retroactive.
So how does this work? I am assuming he can not get his SSI and unemployment at the same time. He should report the unemployment benefits and pay back the $850 for 3 months and keep the Unemployment. Will he still keep his Medi-Cal benefits while he is getting the Pandemic Unemployment? Will he need to reapply all over again for SSI when the unemployment runs out>?

Your friend should ask Someone about these details, and also ask Someone to pay for his legal defense and also to pay back the funds if/when the need arises.

 

[commentator]

If what he is receiving is really SSI, which is income based disability payments, and he has managed to qualify for unemployment benefits through the PUA program, he is apt, at some point to find himself, first of all, having committed unemployment fraud. Those systems cross match regularly and thoroughly in normal times, we shall see what happens in the current situation.

If he stops filing for weeks, does not keep the backpay and speaks to his SSI caseworker, that will be good, as that will result in their not just immediately stopping all his benefits, including Medi-Cal. (If his income is too great to qualify for SSI, it's too much for Medi-Cal as well.) Once he has an overpayment/fraud/unreported income issue it will be hard to ever be getting back on these programs. Criminal prosecution is not very likely in such cases, but sanctions against his receiving further assistance are a great possibility.

In my opinion, he needs to IMMEDIATELY, stop qualifying for unemployment weeks through this program. They don't just keep sending you money once you sign up, you flat out have to certify for it each week, and each week is a separate commission of fraud under these situations, I strongly suspect (certainly would have been in normal times). He is NOT who the program is designed to help, and he'll end up very much worse off for having done it. Huge corporations that misuse such funds may be able to get by with it, don't get the oversite, but the little person down on the street level, I strongly suspect that when this all is sorted out, they'll be sought out and thoroughly investigated and forced to give back everything they can get from you.

Unemployment benefits in prior days were always contingent upon your been able, available and actively seeking work or willing to return to your past employment when needed. They have always heretofore been completely mutually exclusive with any kind of disability, either SSI or Social Security Disability, both of which are supposed to be contingent upon your being too disabled to work. It sounds like your friend has been playing on the edge by working while supposedly too disabled to work. Yes, I can understand that doing recycling, etc. would be something not too strenuous and $850 is a pathetic amount to be expected to live on. The money he was making was under the table was not being reported, else SSI would've been dealing with it all along. But this PUA is NOT supposed to be helping someone who was, while flying under the flag of being too disabled to work, was doing side gigs. It may be more money in the short term, but it is going to give him serious problems far out in the future.

 

[FlyingRon]

. (If his income is too great to qualify for SSI, it's too much for Medi-Cal as well.)

Really? while being elgible for SSI automatically qualifies you for Medi-Cal, the disability and a poverty-level income (I don't think the PUA payments are going to be high enough) aren't going to disqualify him.

 

[jomustard]

Thank you all for your responses. Another friend of his applied for the pandemic unemployment was approved so this encouraged him to file, I would think that after checking your social security number a person on SSI would be denied right away. Instead they sent him an award letter. He is just being honest. He makes a little extra each month on recycling and once in a while will do someones taxes. He wasn't able to do this in quarantine. He has been very afraid he will get in trouble so he plans on going to Social security tomorrow. I checked online and wasn
t able to find much about SSI and the Pandemic Unemployment but I did find this.
People on SSI may also encounter issues with the $2,000 asset limit for individuals and $3,000 asset limit for married couples, especially given the generous PUC benefits and the likelihood that people may receive multiple weeks of retroactive benefits at one time due to lags in state implementation of the new programs.

If SSI recipients receive benefits that would push them over the asset limits, they should consider spending those funds right away to purchase needed supplies.
In addition, people on SSI are required to apply for other benefits they may be eligible for,
2 including unemployment insurance.
3 If people with disabilities have been working and lost jobs because of COVID, they likely are required to apply for the new PUA program.
1 Program Operations Manual System (POMS), SI 00830.230 Unemployment Insurance Benefits,

How does receiving state UI or the new PUA benefits impact people on Medicaid?
The CARES Act explicitly excludes the extra PUC payments from being considered for Medicaid eligibility so the additional funds from PUC will not be considered against Medicaid asset limits. However, many people with disabilities are also eligible for Medicaid automatically because of their eligibility for SSI. This means that if
state UI or PUA benefits put someone over income or asset limits in SSI and they are no longer eligible for SSI, they may also no longer be eligible for Medicaid. Under a provision of the Families First Coronavirus Response Act, no state Medicaid agency that accepted the increased Federal matching percentage is allowed to terminate coverage for any person currently receiving Medicaid until the end of the pandemic emergency.
Guidance from CMS has made it clear that this includes people who become ineligible for Medicaid because their SSI is terminated.
4 It is also very likely that people with disabilities would continue to be eligible for Medicaid via the Medicaid Expansion or other eligibility pathways.

 

[FlyingRon]

It's more than just the asset limit, the mere receipt of the income is going to wipe out the benefits for a time. Unemployment benefits are income as far as SSI goes.

Medicaid is specifically excluded from being affected by the PUC (but that's a different payment than the PUA). PUC is rather unique in this aspect.

 

[jomustard]

So if he makes about $4,500 over the 5 months on SSI, and $11,500 over the 5 months on Pandemic Unemployment. Will he be able to keep his Pandemic Unemployment of $11,500 and pay back the $4,500 to SSI? Which will leave him with $6500 for the 5 months. $2000 more than he normally gets. As long as he can get back on SSI in August and keep Medi-Cal. This would seem to be his best option, don't you think?

 

[commentator]

What you think "people on SSI are required to apply for unemployment benefits" means is not what it means. It has nothing to do with your friend's situation at the present time. Before you can get on any income based assistance like SSI, you must already have covered any other possible sources of income. But your advice to your friend is risky. There is no way on earth you can select for him his "best option." It is very likely he will not be able to do what you describe. You may be leading him into a circumstance where he will lose his SSI and his medi-cal . He needs to take his advice from the people who work with SSI.