Up First from NPR - Trapped in a Social Safety Net

Duration: 29m
Broadcast on: 08 Dec 2024
Audio Format: other

In 1972, the federal government launched a program to support the poorest disabled and elderly Americans. Supplemental Security Income, run by the Social Security Administration, provides monthly checks that are a lifeline for some of the most vulnerable people in this country.

SSI was intended to serve as a powerful safety net and a tool for fighting poverty. But a recent NPR Investigation led by correspondent Joseph Shapiro has discovered a very different reality today.

In today's episode of The Sunday Story, Shapiro explains how SSI's outdated rules have made the system difficult to run and almost impossible for its beneficiaries to navigate. Impoverished disabled and elderly people say they have been penalized for trying to improve their lives—for saving money, getting married, and even daring to have careers.

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I'm Aisha Roscoe and this is a Sunday Story. When you think about Social Security, you might think about someone who's retired, getting a check, you know, living on a fixed income with help from Social Security. But Social Security includes a wide range of programs that make up the social safety net in the U.S. Growing up, I knew of extended family or friends of family who depended on these monthly checks because they had disabilities or children with disabilities or they didn't have a lot of money and they needed this money to survive. My mom actually worked for Social Security in the 80s and she helped a lot of people get these benefits. Today we're going to focus on a program that supports people with disabilities and Americans who are very, very poor. It's called Supplemental Security Income or SSI and it serves some of the most vulnerable Americans. NPR correspondent Joseph Shapiro has been reporting on this program over the last year. He recently published a series of investigative stories on NPR about SSI. We sat down to talk about the ins and outs of this program and he told me a lot of stories including one about Karen Williams, a 63-year-old woman in Philadelphia. Karen Williams couldn't work because of a disability. She was struggling to pay for her everyday expenses but she was proud of how she managed the little money she did have. I was just making a dollar not only holler but make it scream.

And that's what I was doing. I knew how to juggle money and save and put up and all that. But it wasn't enough one of her health care providers told her about this program called SSI. So she applied and the monthly benefit she got several hundred dollars a month was a relief. It made her life better. It helped her get by at least for a while. Then the program turned into her nightmare. It's really tousled. Today on the Sunday Story, how a program designed as a safety net for the poor and disabled has kept many in poverty instead. More on correspondent Joseph Shapiro's investigation when we come back. You're listening to the Sunday Story. I'm here with correspondent Joseph Shapiro talking about the supplemental security income program. So Joe, tell me about the SSI program. Like who is it meant to serve? SSI is run by the Social Security Administration. It provides financial assistance in the form of a monthly check, mostly to adults with physical disabilities or their blind or they have mental health disabilities. Some checks go to disabled children and also to people 65 and older who are very poor. Okay well that you know I definitely know people who have little nor income and they relied on these checks to get by. Yes those SSI checks those are lifelines to some of the poorest people in this country and this year the average SSI check is about seven hundred dollars a month. The money helps people pay for everyday expenses, food, rent, medical costs and it qualifies them in most states for health insurance through Medicaid. So it does sound like it could be a really good tool to fight poverty but you led an NPR investigation into the program and you found a very different reality and you called SSI the forgotten safety net. Why? Yes so a forgotten safety net because SSI was this bold and innovative program when it was created back in 1972 and this may be surprising but the idea started with President Richard Nixon. He proposed replacing the existing federal welfare system with a guaranteed basic income to impoverished Americans. They'd get monthly vouchers and they could spend the money how they want it and Nixon got support on the right and from some on the left but in the end his plan failed. Just one part survived a monthly check to poor disabled and elderly people. It was an easier case to make because these were considered among the most so-called deserving of the poor and that's how SSI was created but in 52 years the program has been largely forgotten by lawmakers and policy makers. Its rules are frozen in place at standards from 40 to 50 years ago. Okay so let's let's take a closer look at these rules and regulations like where should we start on this? So here's the biggest problem that I found. To be on SSI there's a limit on how much money you can have or how much you can own it's called the asset limit but that number is from another era. It's just two thousand dollars. The same as it was in 1989. Yeah two thousand dollars in today's dollars doesn't I mean that's really low. Right if SSI's asset limit had kept up with inflation instead of being two thousand dollars today it would be ten thousand dollars. So given these outdated guidelines I would imagine that a lot of people are being kicked off or having to

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