Overview
Our nation’s Social Security system provides benefits to over 59 million people, including over 10 million people with disabilities. Social Security insures individuals and family members for when a worker retires, dies, or acquires a qualifying disability. Many people with disabilities depend solely on their Social Security or Supplemental Security Income (SSI) benefits and related health coverage for their basic survival.
Social Security is an earned benefit with dedicated funding from payroll contributions paid by workers and their employers. Benefits are based on the worker’s earnings history and are generally modest, averaging a little over $1,300 per month for all beneficiaries. Social Security beneficiaries also qualify for Medicare.
Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) assists workers with qualifying disabilities, their children, and spouses. To qualify, a worker must meet Social Security’s strict disability standard. When a worker qualifies, the worker’s spouse and child(ren) also may be eligible for monthly benefits, subject to a family maximum.
Many people with disabilities also benefit from Social Security’s SSI program. SSI assists seniors as well as adults and children who are blind or have qualifying disabilities; to be eligible, you must also have little or no income or savings. SSI provides monthly benefits to help people meet their basic needs, such as food, clothing, and shelter. Benefits average a little over $550 per month. Unlike Social Security, SSI has no work history or prior contribution requirements and is funded by general revenues. In most states (with some exceptions), an SSI beneficiary is also eligible for Medicaid.
See our position statement on opportunities for financial asset building.
Why It Matters
Social Security and SSI play a vital role in helping people with disabilities to live independently in the community and meet their basic needs. Many people with disabilities rely on benefits for much of their income. Discussions about Social Security, however, often focus on retirement and seldom address potential effects on people with disabilities in the retirement, disability, and survivor’s programs.
In recent years, inadequate funding of SSA’s operating budget has eroded the agency’s services across the board. People with disabilities have experienced increasingly long delays and decreased service in accessing critical Social Security benefits. Processing times for disability claims have grown, especially at the hearing level where delays have reached historic and intolerable levels. Behind the numbers are individuals with disabilities whose lives have unraveled while waiting for decisions — families are torn apart, homes are lost, medical conditions deteriorate, once stable financial security crumbles, and many individuals die.
What The Arc Is Doing
Because Social Security and SSI – along with related Medicare and Medicaid benefits – are so important to people with disabilities, strengthening the Social Security system and ensuring its long-term availability is a high priority for The Arc and the disability community.
Our Public Policy Goals
The Arc’s Public Policy Goals include many recommendations for strengthening Social Security and SSI and ensuring that these vital systems will be there for future generations.
Our Coalition Work
The CCD Social Security Task Force focuses on disability policy issues in the Title II disability programs and the Title XVI Supplemental Security Income (SSI) program. The SSI and Title II cash benefits, along with the related Medicaid and Medicare benefits, are the means of survival for millions of individuals with significant disabilities.
Personalizing the Fight to Protect Supplemental Security Income (SSI)
SSI provides a basic standard of living for millions of people with disabilities and their families across the United States. Monthly SSI benefits help people with intellectual and developmental disabilities put food on the table and a roof over their heads – and in most states, SSI ensures access to Medicaid. SSI also plays a vital role in helping families raise children with significant disabilities in the family home.
Let your members of Congress know why SSI is vital to you.
How You Can Help
There are many ways to advocate with and support The Arc’s grassroots movement.
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Help strengthen our policy advocacy efforts to protect critical programs.
The Arc promotes and protects the human rights of people with intellectual and developmental disabilities and actively supports their full inclusion and participation in the community throughout their lifetimes.
