During the Special Committee on Aging hearing on Thursday, Senator Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., highlighted what she said is a need for Social Security Supplemental Security Income (SSI) reform.
While SSI’s original goal was to ensure that no senior person with a disability would have income below-poverty-level, she argued, outdated rules have trapped four out of ten recipients in poverty.
“The most a recipient can earn in income before losing benefits is $65 a month.”
SSI is an “important lifeline” for 8 million low-income seniors and people with disabilities, she added, but it’s “outdated, punitive rules squeeze too many struggling families out of the program and trap many recipients in poverty.”
The average monthly SSI benefit is below $600, which, according to Cindy Hounsell, President and Founder of the Women’s Institute for a Secure Retirement, would keep many elders in poverty.
Therefore, to make ends meet, an SSI recipient might consider working, despite disability, age, or needing to care for a child with disabilities. However, the most a recipient can earn in income before losing benefits is $65 a month.
Additionally, collecting more than $20 a month in Social Security would reduce SSI benefits. SSI beneficiaries are not allowed to have more than $2,000 in savings, including in retirement accounts. Married recipients also receive lower SSI benefits and have additional asset limits. SSI recipients can even be punished for receiving groceries from a friend, or housing from family.
No matter which avenue SSI recipients try to take to lift themselves out of poverty, they will be penalized under current law, Warren claimed.
Senator Warren concluded by calling for the passage of the SSI Restoration Act, which would raise the SSI benefit rate and reform other SSI rules.
In addition to co-leading the SSI Restoration Act, Senator Warren called for an increase of Social Security and disability benefits at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, including unveiling a plan to increase by $200 the monthly benefit for all Social Security, Veterans, and SSI beneficiaries through the end of 2021.