The Social Security Administration (SSA) says that over 100,000 people have been taken off of SSI in the last year.
This comes as a surprise to the millions of Americans who are eligible for benefits. Using Supplemental Security Income (SSI), 7,261,342 people got disability checks in May 2024. This was down from 7,380,737 checks given out in May 2023.
Adults and children who are blind or disabled and have little or no income can get SSI benefits. Of the 7.2 million people who get this kind of benefit from the SSA, about 6.1 million are in this group.
They also make up most of the SSI applicants. The last 1.1 million people are in the 65 and older group.
Thousands of Americans will no longer receive their SSI benefits
SSI benefits stopped for a total of 140,034 disabled or blind people in the two groups of people who were eligible in May 2024. The number of people who were eligible rose by 20,639, from 1,099,669 to 1,120,308.
These people are 65 years or older. It is not easy to figure out why the number of blind or disabled people receiving SSI benefits went down during this time. More than 10,000 people stopped getting SSI benefits in some places.
The number of SSI recipients in California dropped by 16,573 between May 2023 and 2024. California has the most recipients of any state in the union.
Over 17,000 people, mostly blind or disabled, are no longer getting disability benefits. This is something that needs to be addressed. From 708,695 to 690,351, the number of claimants in this group went down.
In May 2024, Texas had 591,710 SSI claims, but in May 2024, they only had 577,123. That is a drop of 14,587. The number of applicants also went down in other states with lots of people.
For example, the number of SSI claimants in New York dropped from 568,777 to 559,222. In some states, the number of people getting SSI benefits stayed about the same.
From 7,923 last year to 7,906 this year, the number of SSI recipients in North Dakota dropped by only 17. All but one of these people were blind or disabled.
Other states also saw small changes. For example, in Rhode Island, the number of recipients went from 30,317 in 2023 to 30,015 this May, an increase of about 300 people.
A big change was made by the Social Security Administration (SSA) last month in how it makes decisions about the Supplemental Security Income and Social Security Disability Insurance programs.
The government agency said it would take off a list of old or rarely done jobs, like “reptile farmer” and “train telegrapher,” that are used to decide if a person applying for disability benefits can do the job based on their skills.
Social Security changes that will impact SSI benefits from now on
- The new public assistance household definition: A new rule will improve the definition of a public assistance home to include benefits from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, also known as SNAP benefits, which affects benefits for SSI applicants residing in these families because support from other household members might be included as income.
- The SSA will expand the rental subsidy policy: This rule, which went into effect in September, expands on a rule already in place in seven states and reduces the potential for rental assistance to affect benefit eligibility.
- Unearned income will change: Beginning in September, the calculation of SSI recipients’ in-kind support and maintenance (ISM) will no longer include food presents. Instead, only affordable or free homes will be approved. This modification will benefit the 9% of SSI beneficiaries whose payments have been reduced due to food presents by ensuring that their payments do not vary as a result of food gifts.
