{"id":14863,"date":"2022-04-25T18:33:56","date_gmt":"2022-04-25T18:33:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/uaaglobal.com\/supporting-intersectionality-through-public-policies\/"},"modified":"2022-04-25T18:33:56","modified_gmt":"2022-04-25T18:33:56","slug":"supporting-intersectionality-through-public-policies","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/uaaglobal.com\/supporting-intersectionality-through-public-policies\/","title":{"rendered":"Supporting Intersectionality Through Public Policies"},"content":{"rendered":"
GIA is advocating for policies that increase the amount of assets that people with disabilities can hold while remaining eligible for public benefits because disabled artists \u2013 indeed, all workers \u2013 deserve to get paid for their work and to build savings, even when circumstances \u2013 like a disability \u2013 prevent them from working a conventional fixed role or schedule. GIA is advocating for disability justice for artists and for all as part of our valuing of intersectionality.<\/p>\n
In our Disability Justice in Arts and Culture Funding<\/a> webinar, the speakers advocated for increased support to artists with disabilities. During this event, I received an email from a colleague who told me of the challenges they faced while trying to support artists with disabilities without disqualifying them from receiving Supplemental Security Income (SSI) benefits.<\/p>\n The SSI program is meant to reduce extreme poverty among the elderly and people with disabilities. Asset limits are part of the SSI program design: to qualify for SSI, your countable resources must not be worth more than $2,000 for an individual or $3,000 for a couple. These limits have not been raised or even adjusted for inflation since 1989<\/a>. People are on SSI because they cannot otherwise “work\u201d \u2013 but, by holding them to 1989 levels, we are preventing them from being paid for their creative offerings to society, something to which every artist should have access.<\/p>\n Understanding how these policies and systems are working, GIA recommends the raising of limits or \u201ccaps\u201d (and indexing these caps to inflation) on the amount of income that people with disabilities and other low-income Americans may secure before being deemed ineligible for public supports such as SSI and other programs. These changes would allow GIA\u2019s members to lend grant support to these artists without endangering the public support they require to survive; and most importantly, these changes would allow them to share their perspectives and vision, enrich the cultural fabric of our nation, and no longer deny proper compensation for their work. If an artist who is receiving SSI is turning down opportunities, they are losing out financially while society is losing out on access to the artist\u2019s thinking, creativity, and talent.<\/p>\n These outdated caps are harmful for people with disabilities \u2013 including disabled artists \u2013 who seek opportunities to be fairly compensated for their art or receive grant support to enable them to create – perpetuating cycles of poverty. U.S. families\u2019 median net worth<\/a> is $121,700. The median net worth among households with adult members with a disability<\/a> is $43,390. Households with adult members with a disability are almost 1.5 times more likely to be liquid asset poor.<\/p>\n