The Social Security Administration recently said that millions of people who get Supplemental Security Income (SSI) will no longer get their monthly SSI payments from the government. The SSA says that more than 100,000 people across the country were taken off of SSI rolls last year.
Supplemental Security Income payments went down from 7,380,737 people in May 2023 to 7,261,342 people in May 2024. This is because 119,395 fewer people were collecting SSI benefits in May 2024 than in May 2023. If you get SSI payments now or want to apply for this Social Security program in the future, find out more about why the number of beneficiaries is going down.
More than 100,000 people will no longer receive SSI benefits in the US
Blind adults and children with little or no income who are disabled can often get SSI payments. The 7.2 million people who get this type of income from SSA are in this group. They make up most of the SSI claimants (6.1 million). The other 1.1 million are aged 65 and up.
In particular, the number of injured or blind claimants who were no longer getting the benefit dropped by 140,034 between May 2023 and May 2024, from 6,281,068 to 6,141,034 in those two groups. Overall, 20,639 more people aged 65 and up (1,120,308) got help than the year before (1,099,669).
There isn’t a clear reason for the drop in the number of blind or crippled users at that time. Newsweek emailed the SSA to find out what was going on and found that more than 10,000 people in several states were no longer getting SSI payments.
It went down by 16,573 SSI applications in California from May 2023 to April 2024, even though the state had the most applications of any 50. Also, more than 17,000 people who were getting disability payments lost their eligibility. Most of these people were blind or disabled. The number of people who got help in this area dropped from 708,695 to 690,351.
Also, the number of people in Texas receiving SSI dropped by 14,587, from 591,710 in May 2023 to 577,123. The number of people applying for SSI also went down in other states with dense populations. For instance, New York recorded a drop in the number of people receiving SSI, from 568,777 to 559,222.
In some places, the number of people getting SSI benefits stayed about the same. In North Dakota, the number of people getting SSI went from 7,923 last year to 7,906 this year, a drop of only 17 people. Only one of these people was not blind or crippled.
Finally, some other states also saw small changes. For example, in Rhode Island, the number of beneficiaries went from 30,317 in 2023 to 30,015 in May, a yearly change of about 300 people.

Social Security changes in disability benefits, including SSI benefits
The SSA announced changes last month that will change how applications for Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) and SSI payments are looked at. The office suggested the change to make the process of figuring out if someone has a disability easier.
The government agency has said that changes will be made to the final rule to make the process of filing for disability benefits better and cut down on the time people have to wait for results.
The fourth step, which checks to see if the applicant can do any related work, is now easier because of the new rule. Under the final rule, which became law on June 22, 2024, the agency will only look back five years to see if work done before will still be useful.
Before this change, SSA asked people to give a lot of information about their jobs over the past 15 years. This could make giving information hard, which could lead to wrong or incomplete reports.
The agency will also no longer look at jobs that start and stop in less than 30 calendar days. The government organization said, “The new rule makes it easier for people to apply for benefits because they can focus on their most recent relevant job activity while still giving enough information for accurate evaluations.”
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This is Ridiculous Government decision, Both SSI and SSA is in trouble 😵💫!
I can not afford to lose my SSI grant. Will we receive a letter from SSA?
They did this to my brother. He had diabetes, a brain aneurism, kidney failure, a condition where he would suddenly bleed from his esophagus and had to get to the ER before he bled to death. He also had some kind of blood cancer and liver failure.. They kept denying him and dragging it out for so long he died @ 58 yrs old.
Good and Bad for some. I see some people struggling while trying to do what’s right while many others use their benefits for drugs and alcohol leaving others to provide housing and food for them. It appears FREE is their favorite price.
I get so little income and my SSI helps so much. I barely make it from month to month as it is. Then I have my debit card compromised and have to change it . Now I have to deal with the hurricane damage.
I have a bunch issues that qualify me for disability but I keep getting denied
I have been waiting over a year for disability. Not sure why the process takes so long. They have all my medical records. Not sure how many more months I can go without a check.
My SSI was changed to just plain Social Security because I reached my full retirement age, but they stopped my check completely said that I would not be eligible for any more benefits until March 20 25. In the meantime, what am I supposed to do? This is part of my livelihood and I’m still disabled. I can’t work. My back is totally messed up. I have sciatica nerve so bad. It’s hard for me to walk, but do they really care they didn’t even send me a letter stating that my benefits were stopped I’ve been calling and calling and to no prevail with they call me back. They have no reason to give me why they discontinued my benefits. This is so sickening and I feel sorry for all of us seniors who are out here trying to live And they sit behind and make judgments. Can’t get Social Security even though we work and we’ve earned it. it’s our this is a sad, sad sad world.
In fairness, the government should relax the income threshold. I need SSI,but cannot qualify. I have multiple chronic issues and my outflow equals or sometimes exceeds my income. What a way to live!
I should have been on SS all my life. I started having grand male seizures at 17. I cant tell you how many job’s I was fired from. So now, here I am in my ‘Golden Year’s’, (HA! What a JOKE! My tin year’s is more like it), & last year they took away $128, & now this year they are getting ready 3take away another hundred! I barely exist on this now!!! I don’t have ANYONE helping me! This is my ONLY income & the BITCHES at my local office are such horrible people. They sit around looking for loopholes to take mo ey away from you. Well sorry, i didn’t marry into America from Vietnam. They still hate us & do anything to mess with us. I had a van full of Vietnamese young men pull up alongside of me & grab me & throw me in the van. You can guess what happened. Though I thought i was going to die that day, too. And their mom’s are the ones working at the SSI office tak8ng away my benefits. Real nice.
Yes I also have seen people that are collecting some income help that can most definitely work, don’t know how they qualified. Meanwhile myself having a very hard time just managing to wash dishes half the time. Can’t afford to go to doctors and have worked and paid into the system for at least 30 years.
I just turned 65 and get a very small retirement check. My SSI is my main income. What’s going to happen to me if they take that away from me? I’ll be one of the millions of homeless people living on the street. I barely get by as it is. If i could work I would be, but this is my life and can’t afford to loose my main source of income.
I feel everyone’s pain as I became disabled after a 28 year career! My disability benefits are $60 short of covering just my rent let alone the rest of my bills! The local assistance office says I get to much money for snap benefits and gives me$23 a month in food allowance! And then they say 2.5% increase covers our needs? The law makers should try living like we have to!
Hello Edwin,
We are totally agree, lawmakers should try living like we have to
Well it looks like the US is in big trouble when it comes to SSI, SSDI. I have been on SSDI for about 10 years now, I can’t live on what I make. I was hit by a car when I was 15 that cause server damage to my spine. I am not able to work now because I have a chronic heart problem that causes me to be in and out of the hospital. I asked for help for food(like snap) and I only got $15.00 a month. My point being if the people in offices of government were to take a pay cut in HALF OF WHAT THEY MAKE it would change so many things in the US!!!!!!!! But I don’t see any one in offices of government doing that because they are selfish and money hungry. If Congress would take half of there pay OUR DEFICIT WOULD NO LONGER EXIST!!!!! This is just my own opinion. What do you think about what I have said anyone agree??????