Earlier this year, it looked like DC might eliminate a critical program that provides temporary cash assistance to disabled residents who cannot work, but we are happy to report that the program has gotten a well-deserved reprieve. DC’s Interim Disability Assistance (IDA) program provides modest cash benefits to residents with disabilities while they wait ‘ for as long as two years ‘ for their application for federal disability assistance to be approved. In fact, IDA now has enough resources to serve as many as 1,000 disabled residents this year, including new funds devoted to the program just a few weeks ago by the DC Council.
IDA is a lifeline to DC residents who are unable to work due to disability and are in limbo awaiting approval for federally-funded assistance from the Supplemental Security Income (SSI) program. The modest cash benefit is sometimes what keeps a disabled resident from becoming homeless and even worse circumstances.
Mayor Gray’s proposed budget for the current year called for “suspending” IDA starting in October 2011, which meant that all current recipients would have lost benefits and no new applications would have been taken. But the DC Council acted to maintain funding for IDA in the budget process and additional resources have been identified recently.
It now appears that IDA will have $3 million or more in Fiscal Year 2012:
- The DC Council appropriated $1.5 million for Interim Disability Assistance in the budget.
- IDA expects to receive $900,000 in federal reimbursements in 2012, all of which can be re-invested in the program. When an IDA recipient gets approved for federal benefits, the feds reimburse DC for the local cash assistance it had provided.
- The DC Council voted in September to modify a proposal that would have taken all Fiscal Year 2011 federal reimbursements into DC’s general treasury rather than back into IDA. Under the new plan, any 2011 reimbursements above $2.4 million will go to IDA. This is likely to provide $600,000 or more, enough to provide benefits to 200 residents.
Even with this reprieve, DC’s Interim Disability Assistance will be smaller than in recent years, when the number of recipients was as high as 2,800.
Maintaining Interim Disability Assistance makes sense for the residents affected and for the city as a whole. First, it’s important to note that most states have a program like IDA, because the federal disability assistance application process is so cumbersome and takes time for approval. DC’s reimbursement rate of 40 percent is on par with the national average. As well, providing a modest amount of aid to residents with disabilities limits the risk that these residents will become homeless or face other crises as they wait for federal benefits to be approved.
IDA is a good investment for the city, and the DC Council made the right move in restoring it.
