The congressional candidates for Virginia’s 7th and 10th districts met in a virtual forum on Monday evening, where they discussed policy problems faced by people with disabilities. At the beginning, moderator Connor Cummings said that the event was a sensory-friendly forum, not a debate, and instructed candidates to speak about themselves, not their opponents. As a result, the forum’s tone was professional and policy-focused, lacking the fireworks of traditional forums and debates driven by attacks and personality.
Discussion focused on issues including barriers to employment for disabled people, loopholes allowing people with disabilities to be paid less than minimum wage, low wages but high burdens for caregivers, and high proportions of incarcerated people with disabilities. The ARC of Northern Virginia hosted the forum and collected questions from the community in advance, with the most common question focused on Supplemental Security Income (SSI) asset limits, according to Director of Advocacy Lucy Beadnell.
“SSI is a social security program that provides critical support for millions of people with disabilities with the idea of helping them afford basics like food and rent, but it makes it very hard for users to pull themselves out of poverty,” Beadnell explained while asking the candidates how they would address the problem. “The asset limit of $2,000 for one person, or $3,000 for a married couple combined hasn’t been adjusted since 1989.”
VA-07 GOP candidate Yesli Vega highlighted the SSI Savings Penalty Elimination Act introduced by Senators Sherrod Brown (D-OH) and Rob Portman (R-OH) to raise the cap to $10,000 for individuals and $20,000 for married couples, and index the cap to inflation. She said the legislation, if enacted, would give disabled people more financial security and independence.
“I think it’s important to note that more than seven million people are relying on this program but unfortunately its asset limit is outdated and does not allow people to save for emergencies,” Vega said.
“Taking care of our disabled community and ensuring that they have the necessary resources to afford food and rent is imperative to giving them a high quality of life. I believe that we must also work to create new opportunities to help individuals and their families out of difficult situations without providing additional red tape or burdens to them or anyone else,” she said.
Representative Abigail Spanberger (D-VA-07) said she supports increasing the asset limits, and highlighted another piece of pending legislation, the Work Without Worry Act.
“I’m proud to co-sponsor that piece of legislation because far too frequently, young adults as they get older, if they are the beneficiaries of their parents’ social security, there are severe limitations on how much they can work and how much independence they can have. And so this bipartisan legislation would ensure that, again, we are allowing or not prohibiting people through problems and hurdles within the law, not prohibiting people from seeking opportunities, from seeking work, and from being able to save for their futures,” she said.
Representative Jennifer Wexton (D-VA-10) said she also supported the SSI Savings Penalty Elimination Act, called for increasing the maximum federal benefit, and called for a personal needs allowance.
“When I was in the state legislature it was brought to my attention that everybody who is on Medicaid in a facility only gets to keep about $30 a month for their personal needs,” Wexton said. “This includes things like having to get adult diapers on your own, having to have a cell plan so you can communicate with your family, having to get a haircut or shave or personal toiletries.”
“So we need to increase that. I have had legislation in the House of Representatives as well as in the State Senate to increase it to $60 and to index it for inflation,” she said.
VA-10 GOP candidate Hung Cao said increasing the cap was a “no-brainer.”
“I don’t know why it’s not done yet. I mean, if I had been in office for the last four years, or, heck, if my party had had both chambers to the [Congress] and the executive branch, I don’t think we’d be talking about this right now. I think this would be a done deal,” he said.
“This seems to me like forced poverty for our constituents who are trying so hard to work up and stand on their own two feet, and so yes, we will be doing this, and we will get this changed,” Cao said.
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Eric Burk is a reporter at The Virginia Star and The Star News Network. Email tips to [email protected].
Photo “Disabled Person” by Marcus Aurelius.
