The Consortium for Citizens with Disabilities is lending its support for congressional bills sponsoring the Supplemental Security Income Restoration Act of 2019. The legislation would update income and asset limits for the SSI program that was established in 1972 as a safety net for the elderly and disabled individuals with limited income resources.
The CDC is a coalition of national organizations that work on advocating for federal policy aimed to assist the more than 57 million children and adults with disabilities. The CDC sent a letter of support to U.S. Rep. Raul Grijalva and U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown, who authored bills to update the income and asset limitations, allowing for more people to be eligible for the program.
“These bills would update the income and asset limits to better reflect reasonable assistance in today’s dollars. They would increase and inflation-adjust the SSI resource limit and income exclusions, and end benefit reductions for SSI recipients who are given food or shelter at below market rates. These changes would allow low-income senior citizens and people with disabilities to save for important needs, accept some help from friends and family, and maximize their financial stability,” the letter stated.
The SSI program has not changed much in the last 40 years and the stringent income and asset requirements prevent millions of disabled people from collecting benefits. Individuals who apply for SSI and have more than $2,000 in combined assets are turned away from the program even if they have disabling conditions. This is something the CDC is looking to change.
“It is time to modernize the SSI program and allow it to better fulfill its purpose of reducing poverty for senior citizens and people with disabilities,” the letter stated.
In the U.S. House the bill was referred to the Subcommittee on Worker and Family Support in September of 2019, but no action has been taken since.
