EMF23-01: Getting Older and Getting By With SSI

Qualitative researchers have, for decades, asked younger adults with children how they make ends meet amidst a precarious low-wage labor market and a faulty social safety net. Yet, consideration of SSI is mostly absent from these works, as is a key population of SSI beneficiaries: older adults. This study uses nationally representative qualitative interview data from the American Voices Project to ask questions about how SSI recipients aged 50 and older (N=25) describe the pathways that led them to receive SSI, the strategies they use to get by financially, and how they make sense of the program. I take an abductive approach to answering these questions, combining insights from prior literature with novel findings that emerge from the data. I find that most respondents turned to SSI as an income source of last resort. Some recipients considered their SSI benefit amount to be disproportionally low compared to their lifetime work effort and to the work it took to apply for SSI. Policy restrictions about how much SSI recipients can supplement their benefits created confusion and distress for some respondents and limited their monthly budgets. Respondents reported having either “just enough” or not enough money to get by on each month, and many took on debt when expenses exceeded their benefit amount. Taken together, the findings from this study suggest that a few core updates to the SSI program could improve the financial lives and overall wellbeing of older SSI recipients.