SSI is a critical supplemental program to the Social Security system. Created in 1972, SSI provides modest financial assistance for older adults and people with disabilities who have little to no other income and who are unable to work enough to pay for essentials like groceries, rent, and transportation.
People with disabilities of any age can qualify for SSI, but it’s also a vital safety net program for older adults with low-lifetime Social Security earnings. Approximately 2.5 million older adults rely on SSI. Two out of three are women over 65. This is partly because women are more likely than men to spend significant time out of the workforce providing care to family members during their peak earning years, which impacts their lifetime Social Security earnings.
Despite its importance for the people who rely on it, the program’s capacity to support some of the nation’s lowest-income people has been steadily eroding because many of its key provisions haven’t been updated in decades. These include the asset limit, which was last updated in 1989, and the maximum monthly benefit, which keeps people trapped in poverty.
Asset Limits Hurt SSI Recipients Already Living in Poverty
When the asset limit was last adjusted, the median rent for an apartment was $500-$600, compared to today’s national median of $1,309. Under the current rule, an individual must have less than $2,000 in countable assets ($3,000 for a couple).
Imagine trying to save for first and last month’s rent today without going over the $2,000 threshold. If a person’s bank account exceeds $2,000 by even a small amount, they become ineligible for benefits for any months during which they exceeded the limit. If a person has a little money in their bank account because they were trying to save for a car repair or other emergency, SSA can deny benefits or fault them for an overpayment.
Overpayments are docked, in part, from future payments, which can make it even more challenging to pay the next month’s rent, buy food, or pay for other necessities. It’s common for SSA to claim that an SSI recipient has been overpaid for months and owes thousands of dollars to Social Security. The burden of proof falls on the recipient. This situation creates perverse disincentives to save or spend wisely that go against basic financial planning advice for anyone trying to achieve economic stability.
Low Monthly Benefits & Complicated Eligibility Rules Trap People in Poverty
The maximum SSI benefit for an individual in 2026 is $994, less than 75% of the federal poverty limit. Even so, SSI recipients living on so little are subject to confusing rules that punish them for trying to improve their situation. For example, SSI benefits are reduced dollar for dollar when individuals have income over $20 from other sources, such as loans from family or small Social Security retirement benefits or pensions. The asset limit causes further harm by subjecting SSI recipients to limits that have not been adjusted for over 35 years.
And that’s if the person can overcome the maze of complex and sometimes incomprehensible rules and processes to get on and stay on the program. Many people who qualify are unable to navigate all the barriers. The outdated asset limit is just one example of how policymakers’ lack of attention to the program harms older adults and people with disabilities who are in dire need of help just to survive.
Congress Can Fix This
A bill called the SSI Savings Penalty Elimination Act would raise the asset limit from $2,000 to $10,000 for an individual, and from $3,000 to $20,000 for a couple so that people who are married are not penalized with lower resource caps than they would have if they were single. It would also index the limit to inflation so that the value of the asset limit didn’t decrease over time as it has since 1989.
A broader bill, the SSI Restoration Act, would raise the asset limit and make a number of other changes to modernize other outdated SSI program rules. A few simple reforms could go a long way towards improving a program that has been neglected for far too long.
