2024 Annual Report of the SSI Program

II. Highlights

The SSI program is a nationwide Federal assistance program administered by SSA that guarantees a minimum level of income for aged, blind, or disabled individuals. This section presents highlights of recent SSI program experience, a summary of important legislative changes to the program in the last year, a discussion of current issues facing the SSI program, and a summary of the key results from the 25-year projections.

A. Recent Program Experience

SSI program experience during the past year included the following:

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During calendar year 2023, 1.35 million individuals applied for SSI benefits based on blindness or disability, an increase of 10 percent as compared to the 1.23 million who applied in 2022. Additionally, about 160,000 individuals applied for SSI benefits based on age, a decrease of 7 percent as compared to the roughly 172,000 who applied in 2022. In 2023, about 566,000 applicants became new recipients of SSI benefits, an increase of 9 percent as compared to the roughly 522,000 who became new recipients in 2022.

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Each month on average during calendar year 2023, 7.4 million individuals received Federal SSI benefits. This group was composed of 1.1 million aged recipients and 6.3 million blind or disabled recipients, of which about 62,000 were blind. Of these 6.3 million blind or disabled recipients, 1.0 million were under age 18, and 1.2 million were aged 65 or older. During calendar year 2023, 8.1 million aged, blind, or disabled individuals received Federal SSI benefits for at least 1 month.

•	Federal expenditures for payments under the SSI program in calendar year 2023 totaled $60.8 billion, an increase from $57.1 billion in 2022.

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Each month on average during calendar year 2023, 1.3 million individuals received federally administered State supplementation payments. This group was composed of approximately 393,000 aged recipients and approximately 943,000 blind or disabled recipients, of which about 16,000 were blind. Of these approximately 943,000 blind or disabled recipients, about 107,000 were under age 18, and about 271,000 were aged 65 or older. During calendar year 2023, 1.5 million aged, blind, or disabled individuals received State supplementation payments for at least 1 month.

•	State expenditures for federally administered State supplements, excluding fees for Federal administration, totaled $3.2 billion in calendar year 2023, an increase from $2.9 billion in 2022.

•	The cost SSA incurred to administer the SSI program in FY 2023 was $4.5 billion, which was roughly 7 percent of total federally administered SSI expenditures.1

•	In January 2024, 7.4 million individuals received federally administered monthly SSI benefits averaging $698. Of these, 7.3 million received monthly Federal SSI payments averaging $672, and 1.3 million received monthly State supplementation payments averaging $214.

B. SSI Legislation Since The 2023 Annual Report

Section 209(f) in division G of the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2024² made a few changes to the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996.³ These changes removed barriers that prohibited access to SSI benefits for certain individuals from the Federated States of Micronesia, the Republic of the Marshall Islands, and the Republic of Palau who are also residents of one of the 50 U.S. states, the District of Columbia, or the Northern Mariana Islands. These individuals include:⁴

•	certain citizens of the Federated States of Micronesia, the Republic of the Marshall Islands, and the Republic of Palau, and

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certain spouses or children of citizens of the Federated States of Micronesia or the Republic of the Marshall Islands provided that the Micronesian or Marshallese citizen on which the relationship is based is serving on active duty in any branch of the United States Armed Forces, or in the active reserves.

These individuals may be eligible for SSI benefits provided that they meet all other requirements of the program such as filing an application for benefits, having resources and monthly income below the statutory eligibility limits, and residing within residing within one of the 50 states, the District of Columbia, or the Northern Mariana Islands.

C. Current Issues Facing The SSI Program

For 50 years, the SSI program has provided a financial safety net for aged, blind, and disabled Americans who have nowhere else to turn. The program plays a crucial role in the lives of about eight million people and is funded from general tax revenues. Accordingly, we take great care to administer the program as accurately and efficiently as possible and remain committed to effectively overseeing the program, protecting taxpayer dollars, and maintaining the public's trust by paying the right person the right benefit at the right time.

Improving the SSI Program

Some aspects of the program are set by law and have not been updated for a significant period. For example, the resource limits ($2,000 for an individual and $3,000 for a couple) were last updated in 1989. The $20 monthly unearned income exclusion and the $65 monthly earned income exclusions were established by legislation enacted in 1981 and have not been increased since.⁵

However, we are constantly looking for ways we can improve the equity and effectiveness of the program as well as our administration of it. Since the publication of the 2023 Annual Report, we have published three final rules and one notice of proposed rulemaking (NPRM) proposing changes to the SSI program.

Final Rules

On March 27, 2024, we published a final rule titled, Omitting Food From In-Kind Support and Maintenance Calculations, which will be effective September 30, 2024.⁶ The rule removes food from the calculations of In-Kind Support and Maintenance (ISM) and adds conforming language to our definition of income. These changes simplify our rules by making them less cumbersome to administer and easier for the public to understand and follow, and they improve the equitable treatment of food assistance within the SSI program. This final rule also clarifies our longstanding position that income may be received "constructively”.

On April 11, 2024, we published a final rule titled, Expansion of the Rental Subsidy Policy for Supplemental Security Income (SSI) Applicants and Recipients, which will be effective September 30, 2024.⁷ The rule revises our regulations by applying nationwide the In-Kind Support and Maintenance (ISM) rental subsidy exception that is currently in place for SSI applicants and recipients residing in seven States. The exception recognizes that a "business arrangement" exists when the amount of required monthly rent for a property equals or exceeds the presumed maximum value. This final rule will improve nationwide program uniformity, and, we expect, improve equality in the application of the rental subsidy policy.

On April 19, 2024, we published a final rule titled, Expand the Definition of a Public Assistance Household, which will be effective September 30, 2024.⁸ The rule expands the definition of a public assistance (PA) household for purposes of our programs, particularly the Supplemental Security Income (SSI) program, to include the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) as an additional means-tested public income maintenance (PIM) program. In addition, the rule revises the definition of a PA household from a household in which every member receives some kind of PIM payment to a household that has both an SSI applicant or recipient, and at least one other household member who receives one or more of the listed PIM payments (the any other definition). If determined to be living in a PA household, inside in-kind support and maintenance (ISM) will no longer need to be developed. The final rule will decrease the number of SSI applicants and recipients charged with ISM from others within their household. In addition, we expect this rule to decrease the amount of income we would deem to SSI applicants and recipients because we will no longer deem as income from ineligible spouses and parents who live in the same household: the value of the SNAP benefits that they receive; any income that was counted or excluded in figuring the amount of that payment; or any income that was used to determine the amount of SNAP benefits to someone else. These policy changes reduce administrative burden for low-income households and SSA.

Proposed Rule

On February 15, 2024, we published a NPRM titled, Use of Electronic Payroll Data To Improve Program Administration.⁹ Section 824 of the Bipartisan Budget Act of 2015 (BBA) authorizes the Commissioner of Social Security to enter into information exchanges with payroll data providers to obtain wage and employment information. We use wage and employment information to administer the Old-Age, Survivors, and Disability Insurance (OASDI) disability and Supplemental Security Income (SSI) programs under titles II and XVI of the Social Security Act (Act). We are proposing these rules pursuant to section 824 of the BBA, which requires us to prescribe, by regulation, procedures for implementing the access to and use of the information held by payroll data providers. We expect these proposed rules will support proper use of information exchanges with payroll data providers that will help us administer our programs more efficiently and prevent improper payments under titles II and XVI of the Act, which can otherwise occur when we do not receive timely and accurate wage and employment information. We are currently reviewing the public comments we received for this NPRM.

D. Key Results From The 25-Year Projections

The major findings in the 25-year projections prepared for this report are:

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In recent years the SSI recipient population has declined as the number of applicants for SSI payments declined through 2021. The number of applications decreased from 2010 through 2021, including a particularly sharp decrease in 2020, due to a number of pandemic-related effects. In 2022 and 2023, the number of applications increased as SSA implemented various outreach efforts. In 2024 through 2029, the number of applications is projected to continue to increase, reaching levels more consistent with longer-term expected experience, and then remain at roughly this level thereafter. By 2048, we project that the Federal SSI recipient population will reach 8.0 million. As a percentage of the total Social Security area population, we project the number of Federal SSI recipients to increase from 2.13 percent of the population in 2024 to 2.17 percent in 2029, and then decline very gradually to 2.07 percent by 2048. This occurs for several reasons, including that the percent of the population potentially eligible for SSI based on their citizenship and residency status is projected to decline slightly in the future.

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We project that Federal expenditures for SSI payments in calendar year 2024 will increase by $2.2 billion to $63.0 billion, an increase of 3.6 percent from 2023 levels. In dollars adjusted by the Consumer Price Index to 2024 levels, we pro­ject that SSI program outlays will increase to $70.1 billion in 2048, a real increase of 0.4 percent per year.

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Federal SSI expenditures were 0.22 percent of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in 2023. We project that such expenditures will stay roughly level at 0.22 percent of GDP in 2024 and decline thereafter to 0.17 percent of GDP by 2048. Federal SSI expenditures are projected to grow more slowly than GDP both because the share of the population that will be potentially eligible for SSI will decline and because the maximum Federal SSI benefit is projected to grow more slowly on average than the growth in average income in the future.

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1

Administrative costs do not include the costs of beneficiary services provided to recipients through State vocational rehabilitation (VR) agencies and employment networks for VR services and payments under the Ticket to Work program.

2

Title II of division G in the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2024 (Public Law 118-42), enacted on March 9, 2024.

3

The Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996 (8 U.S.C. 1612), enacted on August 22, 1996.

4

Section 402(a)(2)(N) of the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996 (8 U.S.C. 1612(a)(2)(N)) as amended by P.L. 118-42.

5

The 1981 law converted the quarterly income exclusion amounts of $60 and $195 established in 1972 to the existing $20 and $65 monthly income exclusion amounts.

6

89 Fed. Reg. 21199 (2024)

7

89 Fed. Reg. 25507 (2024)

8

89 Fed. Reg. 28608 (2024)

9

89 Fed. Reg. 11773 (2024)