Interim assistance reimbursement is a payment SSA makes to reimburse a State that has provided interim assistance (IA) in cash or through vendor payments to an individual for meeting basic needs.

To participate in the IAR program a State must have an IAR agreement with SSA and a written authorization from the individual allowing SSA to reimburse the State from the individual’s SSI retroactive payment.

SSA can reimburse a State only for months for which the individual receives both an SSI dollar amount and an interim assistance payment.

For information about:

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  Interim assistance provided by the State, see SI 02003.002;

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  IAR period, see SI 02003.003;

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  IAR authorizations, see SI 02003.005;

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  Effective life of IAR authorization, see SI 02003.006; and

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  IAR and protective filing, see SI 02003.007

SSI benefits and any State supplementary payments that are due to the individual at the time SSA makes its first payment for one of the IAR periods described in SI 02003.003 are an SSI payment for IAR purposes.

The following benefits are not SSI payments for IAR purposes:

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  Immediate payments issued by the field office (FO) for emergency situations;

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  Emergency advance payments authorized under section 1631(a)(4)(A) of the Act;

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  Presumptive disability or presumptive blindness (PD/PB) payments authorized under section 1631(a)(4)(B) of the Act;

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  Provisional payments under section 1631(p)(7) of the Act; and

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  Interim benefits under section 1631(a)(8) of the Act.

SSA makes the above types of payments to the individual before SSA makes an eligibility determination. SSA deducts the amount of these payments from the retroactive SSI payment before determining the amount of IAR due a State.