Government Hates Trees -- Social Security Edition

I can swear the U.S. federal government hates trees. It keep chopping them down to make paper. Okay, so they use internet web sites too, but when I download their pages I need to print them to use as a reference.

Here's one single example: In the disabilities program called SSI there are reams of directions, instructions, limitations, programs and confusion. They don't mean to confuse, but it's the government. It's what they do naturally. They consider four different kinds of income and each has its own arcane rules which require many pages to describe. If you have a college education you could still make a mistake because it's very different than anything you encounter with taxes or ordinary work records. There is also the distinct possibility you can read the rules one year and they may be changed the next. It's enough to drive a person toward anarchy.

Simplifying the situation by telling candidates/recipients they must keep their assets (which could be converted quickly to cash) to $2000 or less and that all income from work or other means will reduce your benefit by half as much ($2 earned reduces benefit by $1, netting $1 gained) should be enough. Anyone having more than $2000 has their benefit reduced until that is spent down to the limit again.

Did you know that if you receive a check from a family member or friend for Christmas that they consider it unearned income and they reduce your SSI benefit by all but $20 of it. What's the point in receiving money for Christmas if they simply reduce your monthly SSI check?

Did you know that if you save some of the benefit they send you can build up your assets to $2000, but if you save money someone gives you they reduce your benefit by that much so that you really can't build up your assets? It doesn't make sense.

Social Security, simplify the lives of people whose lives are already difficult and maybe you will receive more than a lump of coal in your Christmas stocking!



Update:

As I was awaking this morning I was thinking about the Social Security rules for SSI as being a lot like an income tax.

Think of this: there is the income tax on earnings (about 30% for most workers) and the SSI rules reduce your benefit (check) by about one-half (50%) of your earnings, so the net effect is an 80% "tax" on earnings.

How much incentive to work can there be if you're being taxed at 80% *and* you aren't earning hundreds of thousands or millions of dollars. There just isn't much left over (about $20 for every hundred earned).

So, aside from simplifying the rules, it seems to me that the limitation on earnings (reducing the benefit check by 50%) needs to be eliminated altogether. We shouldn't 'tax' earnings at this low level for these recipients. If you want people to work it just doesn't make sense. And, if you want fewer tax dollars wasted on government bureaucracy it just doesn't make sense.

The simple rule should be that SSI will provide money each month(currently about $725) as long as your total cash assets (what you need for housing & food) remain less than or equal to a set limit (currently $2000).

Then people would have an unlimited incentive to work (if they can) and there would be less complication in their lives and less need for complicated SSI rules and Social Security employees to enforce such rules.