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Washington, D.C. — Congresswoman Mary Gay Scanlon (PA-05) and Rep. Danny Davis (IL-07), Ranking Member of the Ways & Means Subcommittee on Work and Welfare, today led 73 House Democrats in raising objections to Social Security Commissioner Frank Bisignano regarding a proposed change that would limit eligibility for disabled adults and children receiving Supplemental Security Income (SSI) benefits.

“Almost 8 million Americans rely on SSI to afford basic necessities like food and shelter – all of these SSI recipients are older Americans, people with disabilities, or children. Given the vulnerability of those relying on SSI benefits, we must take care to do no harm,” the members wrote. “Cutting these benefits – especially at a time of rapid inflation and a rising cost-of-living – threatens to inflict extreme hardship and immediate poverty on thousands of individuals and families.”

The 2024 rule recognized that low-income and disabled individuals often rely on family or community members for assistance by expanding the definition of what was considered a “public assistance household.” The final rule also removed barriers that unnecessarily penalized individuals for receiving familial support. Further, by simplifying the SSI application, the final rule simultaneously helped seniors and people with disabilities, as well as improved the efficiency of SSI processing. As a result, almost 400,000 additional struggling households qualified for SSI or received increased benefits. The proposed change could cause hundreds of thousands of SSI recipients, including disabled adults and children, to have their benefits cut or lose eligibility entirely.

“Families would be discouraged from offering help to their loved ones for fear of jeopardizing their benefits. Seniors, persons with disabilities, and children deserve to live at home with family who love them. The proposed change shamefully threatens already-struggling families with the impossible choice of loss of disability benefits versus homelessness or institutionalization.  Cutting this essential support will tear families apart by penalizing SSI recipients for staying with their loved ones,” the members continued.

“The SSA has claimed that reversing this rule will 'promote program integrity,' but it has failed to provide any information on the expected impact of this policy or any numbers on how much these cuts would actually save,” the members concluded.

The members requested the following information regarding this rule change:

1. Please provide any documents or analysis estimating the number of households that will see their benefits cut as a result of this rule change. 

   1. How many individuals are estimated to live in these households?

   2. How many of these individuals are disabled?

   3. How many of these individuals are seniors?

   4. How many of these individuals are terminally ill?

   5. How many of these individuals are children? 

   6. How many of these individuals are children with severe disabilities?

   7. How many of these individuals have no other source of income? 

2. What is the average benefit cut under this rule reversal?

3. How many individuals will lose their health insurance as a result of this policy?

4. What is the total estimated “savings” from this rule change? How are these “savings” determined? Do these savings include additional administrative costs incurred by SSA as a result of the rule change?

5. What will be the administrative costs that SSA incurs as a result of this rule change? 

6. Has your agency calculated the potential extraneous costs associated with cutting or eliminating these benefits, including but not limited to, increased burden on foster care systems, hospitals, policing, food and housing shelters, etc.? What are these costs? 

7. Did the Administration consult experts, medical professionals or families who will be affected by the policy prior to announcement? Please provide details of those consultations.

8. How much will this policy increase workloads for SSA staff at local offices? Please provide specific details on the impact this policy will have on waiting times for appointments and claims processing.

9. Please describe SSA's plans to implement the rule change, including drafting clear notices, staffing benefits reviews, and handling telephone and field office inquiries.

10. Please provide historical data from 1980 forward on SSI recipients living in public income maintenance (PIM) households, both in raw numbers and as a percentage of SSI enrollment.

11. Please provide data on how many public assistance households currently rely on each of the following programs/payments:

    1. TANF

    2. Refugee Act need payments

    3. Disaster Relief and Emergency Assistance Act

    4. General assistance programs of the Bureau of Indian Affairs

    5. State or local government assistance programs based on need

    6. Department of Veterans Affairs programs (payments based on need).

    7. Please provide any additional information about the budgetary and human impacts of these changes that your agency took into account when designing these proposed changes.

The letter is endorsed by Democratic Women’s Caucus and co-signed by Reps. John Larson (CT-01), Don Beyer (VA-08), Brendan Boyle (PA-02), Judy Chu (CA-28), Suzan DelBene (WA-01), Lloyd Doggett (TX-35), Dwight Evans (PA-03), Jimmy Gomez (CA-34), Gwen Moore (WI-04), Steven Horsford (NV-04), Jimmy Panetta (CA-19), Stacey Plaskett (VI-AL), Linda Sanchez (CA-39), Bradley Schneider (IL-10), Terri Sewell (AL-07), Thomas Suozzi (NY-03), Mike Thompson (CA-04), Becca Balint (VT-AL), Andre Carson (IN-07), Gilbert Cisneros (CA-31), Steve Cohen (TN-09), Sharice Davids (KS-03), Diana DeGette (CO-01), Maxine Dexter (OR-03), Debbie Dingell (MI-06), Cleo Fields (LA-06), Valerie Foushee (NC-04), Maxwell Frost (FL-10), Sylvia Garcia (TX-29), Dan Goldman (NY-10), Josh Gottheimer (NJ-05), Al Green (TX-09), Chrissy Houlahan (PA-06), Jared Huffman (CA-02), Jonathan Jackson (IL-01), Pramila Jayapal (WA-07), Marcy Kaptur (OH-09), Robin Kelly (IL-02), Timothy Kennedy (NY-26), Summer Lee (PA-12), Ted Lieu (CA-36), Seth Magaziner (RI-02), Betty McCollum (MI-04), James McGovern (MA-02), Rob Menendez (NJ-08), Grace Meng (NY-06), Seth Moulton (MA-06), Kevin Mullin (CA-15), Jerrold Nadler (NY-12), Eleanor Norton-Holmes (DC-AL), Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (NY-14), Brittany Pettersen (CO-07), Chellie Pingree (ME-01), Delia Ramirez (IL-03), Emily Randall (WA-06), Jamie Raskin (MD-08), Deborah Ross (NC-02), Jan Schakowsky (IL-09), Lateefah Simon(CA-12), Adam Smith (WA-09), Eric Swalwell (CA-14), Shri Thanedar (MI-13), Dina Titus (NV-03), Rashida Tlaib (MI-12), Paul Tonko (NY-20), Ritchie Torres (NY-15), Juan Vargas (CA-52), Marc Veasey (TX-33), Nydia Velazquez (NY-12), Debbie Wasserman Schultz (FL-25), Bonnie Watson-Coleman (NJ-12), and Frederica Wilson (FL-24).

Find full text of the letter here.

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