President Biden & Vice President Harris:
For too long, public policy has forced disabled Americans to live in poverty, I urge you to include in the American Families Plan the improvements to SSI that you campaigned on:
– Increase the maximum amount that SSI will provide a disabled beneficiary to live on to at least 100% of the federal poverty line. Currently, SSI provides a maximum of $794 per month to live on, which is far below the cutoff the federal government considers to be “poverty.”
– Eliminate the marriage penalty and “in kind support and maintenance” rules that prevent disabled Americans who rely on SSI from marrying their loves. These punitive rules prohibit disabled people from enjoying the dignity and protections of legally valid marriages.
– Increase the ‘income disregards’ that haven’t been updated in decades and index them to inflation going forward. The SSI program aggressively punishes disabled Americans for earning more than $85 per month in income. If that decades old number had been indexed to inflation, it would be $745 per month today.
– Increase the SSI asset limit and index it to inflation. Disabled Americans must be allowed to save more than $2,000 without losing vital disability benefits; preventing disabled SSI beneficiaries from saving for emergencies is cruel and counterproductive.
Please prioritize these essential improvements that will help millions of disabled Americans in the American Families Plan.
