Millennial Money: Navigating the SSI ‘marriage penalty’
For people who rely on Supplemental Security Income, or SSI, getting married can result in reduced monthly benefits and a lower amount allowed for savings
Jennifer Updike and Lewis Fredette, of Auburn, New York, got engaged in December 2023. The couple, who are both on the autism spectrum, look forward to moving in together soon and tying the knot in a religious ceremony.
But because they both receive Supplemental Security Income — commonly referred to as SSI — they’ll lose about $300 in combined income monthly if they get married due to the resource limits that the National Council on Disability calls the “marriage penalty.” SSI resource limits would also restrict them from having more than $3,000 in combined savings, $1,000 less than they could have individually. They’re staying engaged indefinitely.
“Our entire decision (to get married) was based upon whether or not we would lose money and how much we would lose,” Fredette says.
“We wouldn’t have been able to support ourselves with that much money lost,” Updike adds.
Updike and Fredette aren’t alone. The Social Security Administration reported over 6.5 million SSI recipients over the age of 18 in 2022, the most recent data available. And a 2021 report of U.S. Census Bureau data from 2017 found that most working-age SSI recipients weren’t married or had never been married, a stark difference from nonrecipient working-age adults.
Though the Social Security Administration, also called the SSA, disincentivizes low-income and disabled couples from getting married, there are ways to tie the knot while minimizing losses.
WHY SSI HAS LIMITS FOR MARRIED COUPLES
“SSI is a needs-based program; It’s very similar to welfare,” says Steven R. Dolson, an attorney specializing in
Read more on abcnews.go.com
