WHEREAS, 600 blind Marylanders of working age are forced to subsist on Supplemental Security Income (SSI) benefits because they are consistently denied opportunities for employment; and
WHEREAS, most states supplement federal SSI benefits to bring payments to the blind, disabled and aged, who have no, or meager resources, in line with the cost of living; and
WHEREAS, a blind individual having a given income has less spendable income than a sighted individual with identical resources since the blind incurs unique expenses;
e.g. all of us, on occasion, must hire a reader; and
WHEREAS, in recognition of this fact, four states provide larger SSI benefits to blind recipients than recipients who are aged or disabled, and since 1974, the State of Iowa has provided a supplement to SSI to blind recipients only; and
WHEREAS, Maryland currently provides a small SSI supplement to those blind recipients who would have had a larger grant under Aid to the Dependent Blind than that provided by SSI alone; and
WHEREAS, many blind persons on SSI are striving to enter the job market and no rehabilitation program provides financial assistance covering the cost of a systematic job search; and
WHEREAS, it is clearly in the taxpayer's interest to assist those striving to leave the public assistance rolls and get on payrolls: now, therefore,
BE IT RESOLVED by the National Federation of the Blind of Maryland in convention assembled in the City of Baltimore, this 28th day of August, 1982, that the National Federation of the Blind of Maryland undertake all necessary actions to work with the Governor and member of the General Assembly for the purpose of establishing a state supplement of no less than $50 a month which would be added to SSI checks to blind SSI recipients in Maryland