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September 13, 2023 at 12:25 PM
What You Need to Know
- The SSI Savings Penalty Elimination Act would update SSI’s asset limits for the first time since the 1980s.
- As it stands now, the limits for indviduals are $2,000 and $3,000 for married couples.
- The low limits discourage SSI recipients from saving for emergencies and penalize marriage, supporters of the bill say.
Sens. Bill Cassidy, R-La., and Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, have introduced bipartisan legislation to raise the savings caps in Social Security’s Supplemental Security Income (SSI) program, which they say has not been updated in nearly 40 years and “punishes older and disabled Americans for saving for emergencies and their futures.”
The SSI Savings Penalty Elimination Act, introduced Tuesday, “would update SSI’s asset limits for the first time since the 1980s to ensure disabled and elderly Americans are able to prepare themselves for a financial emergency without putting the benefits they rely on to live at risk,” according to the senators.
Brown first floated the bill in 2022.
Raising the Caps
Individuals receiving SSI benefits are limited to $2,000 in assets; for married couples, it’s $3,000, the senators explained.
“The average current monthly benefit is $585 for individuals,” the senators said. “For approximately 60% of recipients, SSI is their only source of income.”
The Savings Penalty Elimination Act would raise those caps, which have not been changed since 1984, to $10,000 for individuals and $20,000 for married couples, and index them to inflation moving forward.
The bill is co-sponsored by Sens. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., Susan Collins, R-Maine, Bob Casey, D-Pa., and James Lankford, R-Okla.
