Washington, D.C. — In January 2024, 6.3 million disabled people and 1.2 million “aged” beneficiaries received support from Supplemental Security Income (SSI), with the majority of adult SSI beneficiaries being women. A new analysis from the Center for American Progress of household finances reveals elevated financial risks for SSI households compared with non-SSI households with similar incomes. The new analysis finds:
- Households that rely on SSI are less likely to carry debt. Only 54 percent of SSI households have any form of debt, compared with 74 percent of all non-SSI households of any income level.
- Despite less borrowing, debt poses greater risks for SSI households. For poor SSI households—those with incomes at or below the federal poverty level—total debt is roughly 38 times the value of their liquid assets, compared with roughly 13 times for poor, non-SSI households.
- More than half of SSI’s recipients are women. In December 2022, 3.6 million women and nearly 1 million children received support from SSI. This imbalance reflects gender-based economic disparities that leave women more likely to lack income and resources and more likely to need safety net benefits such as SSI.
“People of all ages and varying life circumstances rely on SSI benefits for protection against deep poverty,” said Beth Almeida, senior fellow at CAP and co-author of the issue brief. “But updates to SSI are long overdue after decades of neglect. Modernizing SSI’s outdated limits on assets and income, as well as increasing benefits to ensure they cover basic needs, including doubling benefits for married partners to provide marriage parity, would allow people who rely on SSI to better manage the impact of unexpected expenses and avoid risky leverage.”
Read the issue brief: “Updating SSI Would Improve the Economic Resilience of Low-Income Women” by Beth Almeida, Bela Salas-Betsch, and Christian E. Weller
For more information on this topic or to speak with an expert, please contact Sarah Nadeau [email protected].