SSI’s strict rules
When Congress passed the program into law in 1972, it said SSI should ensure the nation’s “aged, blind, and disabled people would no longer have to subsist on below-poverty-level incomes.” But its benefits have not kept up with modern standards of living.
The maximum SSI benefit individuals receive in 2021 is
$794 per month, or $9,530.12 per year. That’s less than 75% of the federal poverty line. It’s even more dire for couples. If you receive SSI and you’re married to another SSI beneficiary, you don’t each get the full benefit. Instead, you share a benefit of $14,293.61, just 50% more than if you were single. That means a retired couple in their 80s, or a younger disabled couple, could be financially better off getting divorced than staying married.
SSI is meant to serve only the poorest Americans. But as the cost of living has grown dramatically since the 1970s, SSI’s rules have not kept pace with inflation, so people who meet the asset and income limits for the program have lost purchasing power over time.
People who receive SSI must have assets of less than $2,000 for an individual or $3,000 for a couple—numbers that have not been updated since 1989. This disqualifies anyone with rainy day savings or even a small retirement fund. Income is limited, too. SSI participants cannot make more than $65 in earned income and $20 in unearned income each month, which is the same amount the program allowed when it began nearly 50 years ago. After those cutoffs, their benefits go down for every dollar over those thresholds. Their checks can also be reduced if they receive “in-kind support,” such as getting a bag of groceries from a friend or staying in a family member’s home for free.
These rules are not only stringent for the recipients, but also burdensome for the Social Security Administration (SSA), which is already
strained under its current workload, says Stacy Cloyd, director of policy and administrative advocacy at the National Organization of Social Security Claimants’ Representatives. If a SSI beneficiary wins $25 from a lottery ticket, for example, they have to report that to the SSA and see their benefits go down by $5. “SSA would have to process that report and have to change those benefits and change them back the following month. And that takes a lot of time,” Cloyd says.
. What a heartbreaking story.