WSR 24-06-025
PERMANENT RULES
DEPARTMENT OF
SOCIAL AND HEALTH SERVICES
(Economic Services Administration)
[Filed February 28, 2024, 10:56 a.m., effective April 1, 2024]
Effective Date of Rule: April 1, 2024.
Purpose: The department of social and health services (department) is adopting amendments to WAC 388-478-0055 How much do I get from my state supplemental payments (SSP)? Federal law requires the department to maintain a minimum threshold of state spending towards supplemental security income (SSI) state supplement payment (SSP) benefits each calendar year in order to continue to draw down federal medicaid funds. The department may propose modifying rules in order to stay within available state funds to support this requirement. These amendments also clarify cost-of-living adjustments (COLA) to SSP standards for medically institutionalized recipients of SSI, as determined by the Social Security Administration.
Related emergency rules (for the COLA portion of this proposed change) are currently in effect under WSR 24-02-041. When effective, this permanent filing supersedes the emergency rule filed under WSR 24-02-041.
Citation of Rules Affected by this Order: Amending WAC 388-478-0055.
Adopted under notice filed as WSR 24-03-123 on January 19, 2024.
Number of Sections Adopted in Order to Comply with Federal Statute: New 0, Amended 0, Repealed 0; Federal Rules or Standards: New 0, Amended 1, Repealed 0; or Recently Enacted State Statutes: New 0, Amended 0, Repealed 0.
Number of Sections Adopted at the Request of a Nongovernmental Entity: New 0, Amended 0, Repealed 0.
Number of Sections Adopted on the Agency's own Initiative: New 0, Amended 0, Repealed 0.
Number of Sections Adopted in Order to Clarify, Streamline, or Reform Agency Procedures: New 0, Amended 0, Repealed 0.
Number of Sections Adopted using Negotiated Rule Making: New 0, Amended 0, Repealed 0; Pilot Rule Making: New 0, Amended 0, Repealed 0; or Other Alternative Rule Making: New 0, Amended 1, Repealed 0.
Date Adopted: February 28, 2024.
Katherine I. Vasquez
Rules Coordinator
SHS-5015.4
AMENDATORY SECTION(Amending WSR 23-24-009, filed 11/27/23, effective 12/28/23)
WAC 388-478-0055How much do I get from my state supplemental payments (SSP)?
(1) The SSP is a state-funded cash assistance program issued to certain individuals who the Social Security Administration (SSA) determines are eligible for supplemental security income (SSI) as described in WAC 388-474-0012.
(2) Monthly SSP rate standards for eligible persons as described in WAC 388-474-0012 are:
(a) (($38.25))$35.50 for:
(i) Individuals with an ineligible spouse;
(ii) Aged 65 and older;
(iii) Blind as determined by SSA; or
(iv) Disabled as determined by SSA.
(b) Between $0.54 and $199.77 for grandfathered clients as defined in 388-474-0001 and varies by individual based on federal requirements.
(c) $70.00 as of July 2023 for individuals residing in a medical institution. It is based on increasing the federal SSI personal needs allowance (PNA) of $30.00 up to the current Washington state institutional PNA standard described in subsection (5) of WAC 182-513-1105. Starting January 1, 2024, this payment increases annually by a cost-of-living-adjustment (COLA) determined by SSA. The current state PNA standard for institutional apple health is located at https://www.hca.wa.gov/free-or-low-cost-health-care/i-help-others-apply-and-access-apple-health/program-standard-income-and-resources.
(3) A change in living situation, ((cost-of-living adjustment (COLA)))COLA, or federal benefit rate (FBR) can affect a grandfathered client. A grandfathered client gets a federal SSI payment and a SSP payment, which totals the higher of one of the following:
(a) The state assistance standard set in December 1973, unless you lived in a medical institution at the time of conversion, plus the federal COLA since then; or
(b) The current payment standard.
(4) SSP rate standards may be adjusted at the end of the calendar year to comply with WAC 388-478-0057.