A white older couple embrace, with the man's arm around the woman. They're smiling and appear to be standing outdoors in a lively public space.

Supplemental Security Income (SSI)

Supplemental Security Income (SSI) is a critical supplemental program to the Social Security system that provides modest financial assistance for people who are unable to work enough to meet their basic needs. Examples of older adults who may qualify for SSI include an 80-year-old low-income retired couple with unexpected medical costs who are facing homelessness, a 50-year-old person who is blind, with no savings, and a 70-year-old single woman with little to no Social Security benefits. The program is a key anti-poverty program, but its outdated rules and requirements keep out many of the people it is supposed to help.Justice in Aging educates advocates on how to navigate the Social Security Administration to help their older adult clients qualify and retain SSI benefits. Our federal and state-based SSI advocacy aims to update and improve the rules of the program so that the people who need the vital assistance SSI provides are able to access the program.

Staff Experts

Portrait of Tracey Gronniger
Tracey Gronniger
Managing Director, Economic Security
Photo of Kate Lang
Kate Lang
Director, Federal Income Security
Photo of Trinh Phan
Trinh Phan
Director, State Income Security

Current Litigation

Campos et. al. v. Kijakazi
The Social Security Administration wrongfully reduced and discontinued SSI benefits for thousands of people during the pandemic while the agency’s offices were closed, leaving the plaintiffs with no way to engage with the agency to get their benefits reinstated.
Learn more
Amin v. Kijakazi
The Social Security Administration’s (SSA) failure to timely process appeals causes extremely low-income older adults and adults and children with disabilities who receive Supplemental Security Income (SSI) to lose all or some of their vital income.
Learn more
Held v Colvin
The suit charges that SSA discriminated against these individuals for months, and in some cases more than a year, after that discrimination was held unlawful by the Supreme Court when it struck down the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) in June 2013.
Learn more
Hart v. Colvin
This class action lawsuit was filed against the Social Security Administration (SSA) on behalf of about 4,000 residents in the San Francisco Bay Area and Central Coast whose disability benefits were denied or terminated based on the reports of a discredited physician.
Learn more
© 2024 Justice in Aging

cross