A recent survey conducted by Data For Progress found that Americans support reforming the Supplemental Security Income (SSI) program and that people want community services for seniors and people with disabilities expanded.
Part of the reform voters support most is to increase SSI benefits, which is a needs-based benefit for seniors and disabled individuals. Currently the maximum monthly payment for an SSI recipient is $794, which is almost $300 less per month than the federal poverty level of $1,073. It makes no sense that a federal program for needy disabled individuals and seniors would be that much less than what the federal poverty rate is. Below is a description of the polling discussion.
As part of an April survey, Data for Progress sought to test support for expanding home and community-based care. In addition, we measured attitudes towards reforming the SSI system. We find high levels of support for allocating $450 billion for home and community-based care, a promise President Biden made on the campaign trail and recently incorporated in large part in President Biden’s American Jobs Plan. This element of the American Jobs Plan has recently come under fire from Senate Republicans. This initial poll suggests that home and community-based care represents one of the most popular components of the plan. Additional polling on this topic can likely demonstrate this more conclusively.
We also find that reforms to the SSI system are popular with likely voters and that, crucially, eliminating the SSI asset cap altogether enjoys roughly equivalent levels of support as simply increasing the cap.
First, we asked likely voters whether they would support or oppose spending $450 billion to end waiting lists for home and community-based services for seniors and people with disabilities. We find that by a 53-percentage-point margin, likely voters support this spending (72 percent support, 19 percent oppose). Support for this proposal extends across partisan lines. Likely voters that self-identify as Democrats, Independents, and Republicans back this proposal by margins of 76-points, 51-points, and 29-points, respectively.
