2020 Annual Report of the SSI Program

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EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
The Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996 (Public Law 104-193) directs the Social Security Administration (SSA) to report annually to the President and to the Congress on the status of the Supplemental Security Income (SSI) program. Projections of program recipients and costs through at least 25 years are required elements of these reports. This report is the 24th of such reports. Consistent with the projections in the 2020 Trustees Report, the projections and analysis in this report do not reflect the potential effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on the SSI and Social Security programs. Given the uncertainty associated with these impacts, we believe that it is not possible to adjust these projections reasonably at this time.
Highlights of the SSI Program
Major Findings of the Report
As a percentage of the total Social Security area population, the number of Federal SSI recipients decreased slightly from 2.40 percent in 2018 to 2.37 percent in 2019. We project this percentage to gradually decline throughout the 25-year projection period, reaching 2.17 percent of the population in 2044. This occurs for several reasons, including that the percent of the population potentially eligible for SSI based on their citizenship and residency status is projected to decline slightly in the future.
We estimate that Federal expenditures for SSI payments in calendar year 2020 will increase by $0.7 billion to $56.9 billion, an increase of 1.2 percent from 2019 levels.
In dollars adjusted by the Consumer Price Index to 2020 levels, we project that Federal expenditures for SSI payments will increase to $61.2 billion in 2044, a real increase of 0.3 percent per year.

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