Not long ago, the Social Security Administration announced that the government will no longer send SSI payments every month to the millions of people who get them.
The SSA says that across the country, more than 100,000 people were taken off of the SSI rolls last year.
Supplemental Security Income was given to 7,261,342 people in May 2024, down from 7,380,737 people in May 2023. So it was because 119,395 fewer people were getting SSI in May 2024 than in May 2023.
For those of you who get SSI or want to get it in the future, find out why the number of people getting it is going down.
In the US, more than 100,000 people will no longer get SSI
People with disabilities and blind children who have little or no income often get SSI payments. SSA gives this kind of money to 7.2 million people, who are in this group. They get SSI in large numbers (6.1 million). One and a half million are over 65 years old.
Claimants who were hurt or blind and no longer getting benefits dropped by 140,034 between May 2023 and May 2024, going from 6,281,068 to 6,141,034 in those two groups. Twenty-six hundred more people aged 65 and up got help than the previous year (1,120,308).
At that point, it was not clear why the number of broken or blind users had gone down. Over 10,000 people in several states were no longer getting SSI payments. Newsweek wrote to the SSA to find out what was going on and learned this.
The number of SSI applications in California dropped by 16,573 between May 2023 and April 2024. Even though the state had the most applications of any 50, this was still the case.
Also, more than 17,000 people who were getting disability benefits lost their right to continue getting them. A lot of these people were blind or had other issues. Less people in this neighborhood got help from 708,695 to 690,351.
The number of people getting SSI in Texas also dropped by 14,587, from 591,710 in May 2023 to 577,123.
The number of people applying for SSI also went down in states with lots of people. Like, in New York, the number of people getting SSI dropped from 568,777 to 559,222.
Some places saw about the same number of people getting SSI payments. Last year, 7,923 people in North Dakota got SSI. This year, 7,906 people will get it. Only 17 people have left. Only one of these people was not hurt or blind.
Finally, there were small changes in a few more states. The number of recipients in one state went down from 30,317 in 2023 to 30,015 in May. That is a drop of about 300 people per year.
Changes to Social Security disabled benefits, such as SSI benefits
The SSA announced last month that they would be changing how they review claims for Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) and SSI payments. It would be easier for the office to tell if someone has a disability after the change was made.
That government group said they would change the final rule to make the process of applying for disability payments better and faster.
The fourth step is now easier because of the new rule. This step looks to see if the applicant has already done any work that is related. The last rule became law on June 22, 2024. The group will now only check work from five years ago to see if it is still useful.
Before this change, people had to tell SSA a lot about their jobs. Last changed 15 years ago. The fact that this could make it hard to give information means that stories might be wrong or leave out parts.
Also, jobs that start and end in less than 30 days will not be considered.
People can focus on their most recent relevant job activity while still giving enough information for accurate evaluations,” the government group said. “The new rule makes it easier for people to apply for benefits.”
