Summary
Little one functions and awards for Supplemental Safety Revenue (SSI) fell sharply on the outset of the COVID-19 pandemic. Cumulative functions from April to September 2020 had been about 30 % decrease than functions over the identical interval in 2019. But the decline different considerably throughout native areas. On this paper, we discover the components correlated with the change in functions and awards firstly of the pandemic.
The paper discovered that:
- The restriction of in-person companies in any respect Social Safety Administration (SSA) subject workplaces in March 2020 performed an necessary function in modifications in SSI functions; counties with their very own subject workplaces, the place the change in service availability is largest, skilled bigger declines.
- The pandemic’s myriad disruptions to social and repair networks by which individuals could study SSI additionally contributed to declining functions, as declines had been largest in counties with extra youngsters that participated in SSI earlier than the pandemic and in counties the place extra individuals had a self-identified incapacity.
- New macroeconomic stabilization insurance policies similar to financial influence funds and supplemental unemployment insurance coverage funds additionally seem to have led to fewer baby SSI functions. Counties with bigger employment reductions early within the pandemic, which seemingly benefited most from these stabilization insurance policies, subsequently additionally had fewer SSI functions.
The coverage implications of the findings are:
- The outcomes level to ways in which SSA may extra successfully conduct outreach to make sure equitable entry to baby SSI because the pandemic wanes. Tapping into native networks, similar to rising outreach actions with native organizations or college employees, could be an particularly efficient approach for SSA to make sure that individuals are sufficiently conscious of the kid SSI program.
- Administrative burdens within the utility course of for profit packages can scale back participation even when eligibility is unchanged. Though SSA didn’t contemplate the earnings obtained from financial influence funds and supplemental unemployment insurance coverage advantages in figuring out monetary eligibility for SSI, functions nonetheless declined extra in locations with bigger employment reductions. Moreover, the restriction of in-person companies at subject workplaces could have been extra burdensome in locations the place it was beforehand simpler to go to a close-by subject workplace.
