Every older adult should have a roof over their head and enough income to pay for medicine, transportation, food, clothing, and other basic needs.
Yet many retired low-wage workers—including caregivers, women, people of color, and people with disabilities—find that Social Security and other retirement income they receive is inadequate for today’s cost of living. 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 needs or whose retirement income is too low for them to survive. SSI checks boost local economies by supporting businesses and essential services, prevent homelessness, and provide stability for extremely low-income people who are often still living below the poverty level. However, its outdated eligibility rules and requirements, which haven’t been changed in over 40 years, keep out many of the people it is supposed to help and haven’t kept up with cost-of-living changes.
Justice in Aging to advocates to update and improve the program so that the people who need the vital assistance SSI provides are able to access the program.
