The Supplemental Security Income (SSI) program is a federal assistance program that guarantees a minimum level of income for low-income elderly and disabled populations. The program was enacted in 1972 and issued the first monthly payments to recipients in January 1974. Unlike Social Security retirement or disability benefits that workers earn through payroll contributions, SSI benefits are not linked to taxes paid by beneficiaries. Rather, eligibility is based on needs and determined by income.
As of July 2026, 7.3 million individuals received monthly SSI benefits averaging $737 per month. The federal government spent $61 billion for the program in fiscal year 2025.
What Is SSI?
SSI is a federal assistance program run by the Social Security Administration (SSA) that provides monthly cash payments to eligible individuals with limited income and resources. Unlike Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI), which is based on work history and contributions to Social Security, SSI is a needs-based program designed to provide basic support for aged, blind, and disabled individuals. The program is intended to be an assistance source of “last resort” because it is a means-tested program that considers all income and resources an individual has access to or can obtain to determine eligibility and benefit levels, including other potential benefit programs such as Social Security.
The program provides a federal monthly maximum benefit amount, which is $994 for individuals and $1,491 for couples in 2026. Some factors, such as having a working spouse or a person’s living arrangements, may reduce the benefit amount. In addition to the federal benefit amount, many states offer a “state supplement” to further support beneficiaries. This additional state supplement does not affect the federal benefit amount a recipient receives.
Though all states have thousands of recipients, states in the south and northeast have a larger share of their population receiving benefits from the SSI program.
Who Qualifies for SSI?
Both adults and children are able to receive benefits through SSI. For children under 18, the disability standards differ from adults, focusing mainly on whether their disability causes moderately severe to severe functional limitations. Adults must meet the same medical criteria in addition to having limited income resources. The program also has special provisions for students, working individuals, and those in various living arrangements.
Eligibility for benefits is determined on a monthly basis. SSI recipients are required to have both their nonmedical and medical eligibility redetermined periodically. For nonmedical factors, reviews are carried out every one to six years depending on the severity of the situation; medical eligibility reviews are done anywhere from six months to seven years depending on the likelihood of medical improvement. Applicants and recipients are required to report events and changes of circumstances that may affect their SSI eligibility and benefit amounts.
Individuals must be disabled, blind, or over age 65, in addition to having little to no income and resources to qualify for SSI. As of December 2025, most recipients — 84 percent — are eligible for the SSI program on the basis of a disability. Only 17 percent of program beneficiaries receive payments due to blindness or age.
Since the program made its first payments in 1974, the share of recipients age 65 and older has decreased while the under-65 population has become most of the SSI beneficiaries. In 1974, individuals under the age of 18 made up only 2 percent of recipients but have since grown to 14 percent of the total program recipients. A similar trend has occurred for individuals ages 18 to 64 who now comprise 52 percent of SSI beneficiaries. As a result of this increase in recipients from younger age groups, recipients age 65 and older have become only a third of the program recipients.
How Is It Funded?
SSI is funded differently than Social Security benefits. While Social Security retirement and disability benefits are funded through payroll taxes paid by workers and employers into the Social Security trust funds, SSI is funded entirely through general tax revenues from the U.S. Treasury.
That means SSI payments come directly from federal income taxes and other general revenues rather than from a dedicated trust fund or payroll tax. The program represents a direct federal expenditure, similar to other welfare programs like the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) or the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) programs. Because it's funded through general revenues, SSI does not face the same solvency concerns as the Social Security trust funds.
What Have Costs Looked Like Over Time?
SSI has experienced significant growth since its inception in 1974 when it replaced various state-administered programs for the aged, blind, and disabled. In its first full year (1975) of distributing benefits, SSI administered payments to 4.3 million recipients, with total federal expenditures of $27 billion (adjusted to 2025 dollars). By 2013, the program reached its historical peak enrollment — but not peak costs — with 8.4 million beneficiaries and $69 billion in program costs (adjusted to 2025 dollars). Peak outlays were in 2016 at $76 billion. As of December 2023, both recipients and costs to the federal government are down from the early 2010s but still remain high compared to the program’s initial years.
Several factors have driven the growth in the recipient pool and, as a result, the costs. The eligibility requirements for a disability has expanded over time, particularly for mental health conditions and childhood disabilities. For example, policy changes in 1984 mandated that SSA update disability criteria for people with mental health conditions, incorporate pain assessment into disability determinations, prioritize medical evidence from treating doctors, and account for the combined effects of multiple minor impairments when evaluating disability claims. In 1990, a Supreme Court ruling in the case of Sullivan v. Zebley expanded the criteria for children who qualify for eligibility. After the decision, the percentage of approved applications increased from one-third to over half, and the number of disabled children receiving SSI almost tripled. Between 1990 and the mid-1990s, nearly 1 million American children became SSI recipients, representing almost a tripling of the child SSI caseload.
Cost growth has been driven not only by the expansion of program coverage but also by cost-of-living adjustments (COLAs) that help payments keep pace with inflation and maintain purchasing power. Other programs like Social Security retirement and disability are subject to annual COLAs which lead to automatic increases in program expenses. As of December 2025, the program serves approximately 7.4 million recipients with annual federal costs exceeding $61 billion.
Conclusion
Looking forward, SSI faces ongoing challenges including an aging population, evolving disability eligibility, and fiscal pressures on the federal budget. The program remains a critical safety net for millions of Americans with limited resources, though debates continue about its adequacy, eligibility criteria, and long-term sustainability within the broader context of federal spending priorities. With the national debt exceeding $40 trillion, debt servicing costs growing exponentially, and year-over-year budget deficits, evaluating benefits and costs of SSI is more important than ever.
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