Supplement Security Income (SSI) is a lifeline program for over 80 million older adults and people with disabilities throughout the U.S. Yet this program hasn’t been updated in close to 40 years. The long neglect essentially bars this program from helping the greater number of people it was originally designed to assist and ends up keeping people in poverty versus helping them rise out of it. That’s why we are thrilled to support a new bipartisan bill, the SSI Savings Penalty Elimination Act (S. 4102), introduced by Ohio Senators Sherrod Brown (D. Ohio) and Rob Portman (R. Ohio), would adjust the program so it would help SSI recipients keep more of their assets and save for emergencies.
Currently SSI recipients can only have up to $2,000 in savings for an individual and up to $3,000 for a couple. Anything over that would immediately kick them off their lifeline SSI benefits. This new legislation, however, would allow people to save up to $10,000 for an individual and $20,000 for a couple without affecting their benefits. These amounts would be indexed to inflation so that they would be adjusted annually based on Consumer Price Index data. Having this increased asset limited indexed for inflation will ensure that the 80+ million people receiving this benefit can save for emergencies and life’s unexpected expenses.
Please join us in thanking Ohio Senators Sherrod Brown and Rob Portman for introducing this crucial bill, and in supporting the passage of this much needed update and critical improvement to our SSI program by contacting your Senators.
