TABLE 2.-AMOUNT OF BLACK LUNG AND RETIRED WORKER AVERAGE SOCIAL SECURITY BENEFITS PAYABLE TO MINERS AND THEIR WIVES ENTITLED UNDER BOTH PROGRAMS, DECEMBER 19711

TABLE 3.-AMOUNT OF BLACK LUNG AND AVERAGE SOCIAL SECURITY BENEFITS PAYABLE TO WIDOWS ENTITLED UNDER BOTH PROGRAMS, DECEMBER 1971 1

1 Based on a sample of widow beneficiaries without dependents under the black lung program.

2 Reflects 1971 social security benefit increase of 10 percent.

3 Black lung benefit level, December 1971.

TABLE 4.-BLACK LUNG BENEFITS TO MINERS, WIDOWS, AND DEPENDENTS IN CURRENT-PAY STATUS: NUMBER AND MONTHLY AMOUNT BY STATE, JUNE 1974 1

1 Benefits payable under the "black lung" program established by the Federal Coal Mine Health and Safety Act of 1969. The program is administered by the Social Security Administration but is financed from the general funds of the Treasury.

INCOME-TESTED CASH TRANSFER PROGRAMS

SUPPLEMENTAL SECURITY INCOME FOR THE AGED, BLIND, AND DISABLED (SSI)

Federal SSI Program

BASIC PROGRAM INFORMATION

LEGISLATIVE OBJECTIVE.-To establish a national program providing a uniform minimum cash income to aged, blind, and disabled individuals. SSI replaced the State administered, federally reimbursed programs of old age assistance, aid to the permanently and totally disabled, aid to the blind, and aid to the aged, blind, and disabled.1 DATE ENACTED AND MAJOR CHANGES SINCE ENACTMENT.-The SSI program was authorized in the Social Security Amendment of 1972, Public Law 92-603, October 1972, and was initiated nationwide in January 1974.

ADMINISTERING AGENCY.-The Bureau of Supplemental Security Income (BSSI), Social Security Administration, U.S. Department of Health, Education, and Welfare, administers the SSI program through regional and district SSA offices in 50 States and the District of Columbia.

FINANCING. All costs of benefits and administration of the Federal SSI program are funded through open-ended appropriations from Federal general revenues.2

1 Benefits paid for 6 months of fiscal year 1974.

2 See provision for protecting States against increased costs, optional State supplementation of SSI benefits. 3 Includes 10,800 children.

1 The SSI program is not extended to Puerto Rico, Guam and the Virgin Islands. These jurisdictions continue to administer the aid to the aged, blind, or disabled program with partial Federal funding as authorized under the original title XVI of the Social Security Act. Individuals receiving assistance under these programs in the 50 States and the District of Columbia were transferred to the SSI program in January 1974.

2 See below for provisions for State supplementation of SSI benefits.

ELIGIBILITY CRITERIA

MAJOR ELIGIBILITY CONDITIONS.-Individuals who are age 65 or over, or blind or disabled as defined in the Social Security Act, and who have income and resources within the limits specified in the act are eligible to receive SSI benefits.

Definition of blindness.-An individual is considered to be blind if he or she has a central visual acuity of 20/200 or less in the better eye with corrective lens, or a limitation in the field of vision such that the widest diameter of the visual field subtends on angle of no more than 20 degrees.3

Definition of disability.-The SSI definition of disability is comparable to the definition used for entitlement to social security disability insurance benefits. Under the SSI definition a person is considered to be disabled "if he is unable to engage in any substantial gainful activity by reason of any medically determinable physical or mental impairment which can be expected to result in death or which has lasted or can be expected to last for a continuous period of not less than 12 months." "An added qualification is that the impairments are of such severity that the person is not only unable to do his previous work but cannot, considering his age, education and work experience, engage in any other kind of substantial gainful work which exists in the national economy, regardless of whether such work exists in the immediate area in which he lives." "Work which exists in the national economy" is defined as work which exists in significant numbers either in the region where the individual lives or in several regions of the country."

There is no specific statutory definition of disability related to children except for a statement in reference to the work-related definition that a child under 18 is considered disabled if he "suffers from any medically determinable physical or mental impairment of comparable severity."

Persons included.-Eligible individuals are included in the program. The spouse of an eligible individual is included if the spouse is also eligible as an aged, blind, or disabled person.5 A man and woman are considered to be married if they are legally married under appropriate State law, or if they hold themselves out as husband and wife in the community in which they live.

INCOME TEST

Income limit.-Effective July 1974, an individual is eligible for benefits if countable income (income other than allowable exclusions

3 An individual is also considered to be blind for SSI purposes if he met the definition of blindness under the aid to the blind plan in the State in which he lived and was receiving aid for the blind benefits in December 1973.

4 An individual also is considered to be disabled for SSI purposes if he met the definition of disability under the aid to the permanently and totally disabled plan in the State in which he lived and was receiving benefits under that plan in December 1973, and for at least 1 month prior to July 1973. Other individuals who were receiving APTD benefits in December 1973 but had received such benefits for less than 7 months were transferred to the SSI program in January 1974, but their eligibility under the SSI disability definition must be determined by December 1974.

5 Under the previous State assistance program, the needs of an ineligible spouse or other person could be included in the benefit if the person's presence in the home was essential to the beneficiary's well-being. As a transitional provision applicable only to beneficiaries transferred from State programs to SSI in January 1974, SSI includes the "essential" person when such person's needs were included in the December 1973 State assistance payment. The amount added is equivalent to the amount added for a spouse, or $73 as of July 1974.