Trump Administration Moving To Shrink Disability Benefits For Some Recipients

Thousands of people on federal disability benefits got an extra few hundred dollars per month thanks to President Joe Biden, and now, thanks to President Donald Trump, it looks like that extra cash may go away.

The Trump administration has given notice that it plans to rescind a change finalized last year allowing more Supplemental Security Income beneficiaries to receive full benefits even if they live with someone who helps them with food or shelter.

Supplemental Security Income, often known as SSI or disability, offers a maximum benefit of just $967 per month, with a third taken away from recipients receiving “in-kind support and maintenance,” such as help with groceries or rent, from a roommate or family member.

The Biden administration finalized a rule last year saying it wouldn’t count in-kind support against SSI recipients if other people in the household are receiving federal food benefits, a change the administration said would grant full benefits to nearly 300,000 SSI recipients and make another 100,000 people newly eligible for the program.

“The Trump Administration’s proposal to change the rule would harm hundreds of thousands of the nation’s lowest-income people,” Kathleen Romig and Devin O’Connor, policy analysts with the liberal Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, said in a blog post on Thursday.

Romig and O’Connor said the change could present families with “heartbreaking” dilemmas.

“It could discourage families from offering help to their loved ones, for fear of jeopardizing their meager benefits,” they wrote. “It could force more people to turn to institutional care because they could no longer afford to live in the community.”

The Social Security Administration, which oversees SSI as the federal government’s welfare program of last resort, did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Thursday.

More than 7 million Americans receive SSI benefits, most of them disabled, with limited work histories, and very poor. The government monitors their bank accounts to dock benefits if they accumulate more than $2,000. The Biden administration’s rulemaking had sought to cut back on requirements for reporting in-kind assistance.

It’s not a surprise that the Trump administration would want to undo Biden’s changes to SSI. Biden blocked some disability cuts set in motion by Trump in his first term, and now Trump, in his second term, is doing the same in reverse. Congress has ignored SSI and the Social Security Disability Insurance program for years, letting program rules see-saw in a policy battle between successive administrations.