The Supplemental Security Income (SSI) program, administered by the Social Security Administration (SSA), is the income source of last resort for thelow-income aged, blind, and disabled. As the nation's largest income-assistance program, it paid $38 billion in benefits in calendar year 2006 to roughly 7 million recipients per month. BecauseSSI is means tested, administering the program often requires month-to-month, recipient-by-recipient benefit recomputations. An increase in a recipient's income usually triggers a benefit recomputation. Or, an increase in the recipient's financial assets, which may render the recipient ineligible, would also prompt a recomputation. With this crush of ongoing recomputations, it is of little wonder that administrative simplification is a time-honored mantra for program administrators.
