SSI Basics

• Supplemental Security Income provides cash benefits to low-income U.S. citizens to buy essential items such as food, clothing and shelter. Only elderly citizens 65 or older, disabled Americans and the blind qualify for SSI. In 2011, the maximum monthly amount of benefits available to SSI recipients is $674 per individual and $1,011 per couple. You can register for SSI online, via the telephone, or in person at a Social Security Administration office, of which 19 exist in Arkansas as of 2011.
  
  

Arkansas and SSI

• Arkansas offers very little additional assistance to state residents receiving Supplemental Security Income. States such as Ohio and Nebraska offer additional state benefits to SSI recipients, while such states as California and Vermont provide additional payments to certain SSI recipients with the assistance of the federal government. Arkansas provides no such additional assistance. Furthermore, Arkansas offers no additional assistance to those seeking information on SSI. While the Ohio Legal Rights service assists state residents with SSI questions and concerns, Arkansas provides no such public resource.
  
  

SSI and Related Benefits in Arkansas

• The application for SSI and Medicaid, a health insurance program for low-income citizens, are one and the same in Arkansas. Thus those applying for SSI in the state may automatically receive health care through Medicaid, and those applying for Medicaid may automatically receive additional cash assistance through SSI. At the federal level, individuals may receive SSI and Social Security benefits simultaneously. American citizens of retirement age eligible for both programs receive benefits from both programs without regard to one another. In other words, the amount of Social Security benefits an individual receives does not reflect the amount of SSI benefits received and vice versa.
  
  

More Information

• General taxes provide funding for the SSI program, unlike standard Social Security benefits, which come directly from special Social Security taxes on workers' wages. Thus, while only American who paid Social Security taxes receive Social Security benefits, all Americans who qualify may receive SSI.
  
  Families of blind of disabled children can apply for SSI benefits on behalf of children. All benefits received for such a cause must contribute directly to the well being of the child and not any other family expense. When disabled or blind children reach adulthood the Social Security Administration assesses whether than individual continues receiving SSI benefits.