Government Move Could Slash SSI for Hundreds of Thousands — Social Security Rule Targets Family Help — Full List of States Hit the Hardest

In 1935, the Social Security program had initially been introduced as a means of fighting elder poverty, however it quickly grew into a much larger program that provides benefits to an array of qualifying individuals alongside the senior citizen cohort. One of these benefits includes the SSI, or the Supplemental Security Income, benefit.

The Supplementary Security Income benefit is a type of benefit paid to older adults, those with disabilities, and in certain cases children, all of whom have little to no other income or resources. According to the July Monthly Statistical Snapshot from the Social Security Administration (SSA), there are currently a little over 7.4 million beneficiaries of the Supplemental Security Income.

Unfortunately due to a rule change that is currently being prepared by the Trump Administration, several hundreds of thousands of SSI recipients could soon see their monthly benefit income greatly reduced or even eliminated entirely. Here is what you need to know about this upcoming change , as well as which states will be most affected.

How do SSI benefits work?

Much like the regular Social Security benefit, the Supplemental Security Income benefit is also paid to qualifying individuals on a monthly basis (generally on the first of the month). According to the SSA, for 2025, “the maximum monthly SSI payment for 2025 is $967 for an individual and $1,450 for a couple.”

Your SSI benefit, however, could be subject to a reduction as a result of various factors such as income, living with a spouse, or receiving other types of benefits. According to the agency, “for every $2 you earn from work, we reduce your SSI payment by about $1” and “for every $1 you get from non-work sources, we reduce your SSI payment by about $1”.

Additionally, under the current policy, SSI recipients who receive the maximum payment could see their SSI benefit reduced by up to a third due to their living situation. “If you live in someone else’s home and don’t pay your fair share of food and shelter costs, your SSI payment may be lowered by up to $342.33,” as per the SSA.

However, if the SSI recipient is residing in a “public assistance household” (which often includes households enrolled in the SNAP or Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program), your SSI benefit will not face any reductions. This is due to the assumption that SNAP qualifying households will not likely be in the financial position to sufficiently provide for a SSI recipient.

Now, however, the Trump Administration is said to be preparing a rule regarding this exemption. Under this new rule, SNAP will no longer be considered as a qualifying program to grant an individual “public assistance household” status. As such, according to estimates from the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities (CBPP), “nearly 400,000 SSI beneficiaries living with family or friends experiencing their own financial struggles likely would have their benefits cut—typically by hundreds of dollars per month—or lose eligibility altogether.”

In specific, the CBPP estimates that “over 275,000 people could face benefit reductions and over 100,000 could lose eligibility entirely.”

States that will be most affected by this change

Supplemental Security Income beneficiaries spanning the whole country will potentially be impacted by this rule change, however, the state of California will likely feel the impact the most due to its higher concentration of SSI recipients. The top four states who will potentially be most impacted by this rule change, in ascending order, is California, New York, Florida, and Texas. Of the total impacted population, the combined figures from these four states makes up close to 39% of the total impacted individuals.

Listed below are the ten states who will potentially be impacted most by this SSI rule change:

1. California – 57,600 SSI recipients
2. New York – 35,900 SSI recipients
3. Florida – 30,800 SSI recipients
4. Texas -23,600 SSI recipients
5. Pennsylvania – 18,200 SSI recipients
6. Ohio – 16,000 SSI recipients
7. Illinois – 14,400 SSI recipients
8. Michigan – 14,100 SSI recipients
9. Georgia – 11,600 SSI recipients
10. Massachusetts – 11,600 SSI recipients