Until the Supreme Court legalized same-sex marriage throughout the nation, gay couples that had been married were excluded from a key rule applied to applicants for Supplemental Security Income. Normally, applicants will have part of the income of their spouse applied to their assets, known as “deeming,” which will play a part in how much money, if any, will be paid out to the beneficiary. Before the Supreme Court ruling, couples married in a state that recognized their union where not considered married at the federal level so the imputation of income from one spouse to the other never occurred. But after the ruling, the Social Security Administration retroactively deemed the income of the spouse which resulted in numerous request for repayment. However, after much public and political outcry, the SSA has walked back the request for reimbursement and have set forth guidelines that will make it easy to get around an over-payment assessment. But it should also be noted that this only applies to cases from before same-sex marriage was fully recognized, going forward deeming will occur with all couple regardless of sex.
See, Social Security Administration Attempts to Correct Gay Marriage “Penalty” for Some SSI Recipients, Special Needs Answers, April 30, 2016.
