SSA to digitize application process for supplemental income

A select group of applicants for the Supplemental Security Income program are months away from a more streamlined and simplified online experience, the Social Security Administration said Tuesday, part of a multi-pronged effort to ease the process for people with disabilities and older adults who have limited or no income.

The revamped application process will begin this year with the expansion of the agency’s iClaim benefits system into SSI, leveraging the fully online program to incorporate user testing, easy-to-understand questions, step-by-step transitions and pre-filled answers when applicable.

“Over the past year, we have asked many applicants and advocates — as well as our workforce — how we could make the SSI application process easier and simpler. Now, we are taking an important first step to do just that,” SSA Commissioner Martin O’Malley said in a statement. “People in our communities who need this crucial safety net deserve the dignity of an application process that is less burdensome and more accessible than what we now have, and we’re committed to achieving that vision over the next few years.”

The SSA said the online application process will roll out in December for first-time, never-married applicants between 18 and nearly 65 who are simultaneously applying for SSI and Social Security benefits. The agency is aiming to open the application to all SSI applicants in late 2025.

Beyond the initial application changes later this year, the SSA said future SSI “simplification steps” will draw on iClaim expansion lessons to improve in-person, phone, mobile and paper-based processes. The agency, which posted details about the change in the Federal Register and has opened a 30-day comment period, also intends to create a separate SSI application for children that incorporates those simplification principles.

Under O’Malley, the SSA has accelerated paper-to-online transitions across the agency, embracing digital best practices and leaning in especially to data, artificial intelligence and modernization. The agency earlier this year launched its SecurityStat data-tracking tool while continuing to build out its AI use case inventory. 

In an interview with FedScoop this summer, SSA Chief Information Officer Marcela Escobar-Alava said the agency’s IT leadership is focused on “connecting the dots with what is really driving the business measures and some of the results.”

“There’s a lot of cultural, organizational change that’s going on internally to really bring everybody to the forefront and really understand that the customer really needs to drive how we deliver [and] what we deliver,” she said.