SSI Annual Report

     From the Annual Report of the Supplemental Security Income Program just filed:

• By 2044, the end of the 25-year projection period, we estimate that the Federal SSI recipient population will reach 8.4 million. The projected growth in the SSI program over the 25-year period is largely due to the overall growth in the Social Security area population, though the growth in the SSI recipient population is projected to be somewhat slower than the growth in the Social Security area population.

• 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 in2044. 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 $0.7billion 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 expendituresfor SSI payments will increase to $61.2 billion in 2044, a real increase of 0.3 percent per year.

• Federal SSI expenditures expressed as a percentage of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) were 0.26 percent in 2019. We project that expenditures as a percentage of GDP will decrease to 0.25 percent of GDP in 2020, and continue to decline thereafter to 0.18 percent of GDP by 2044. Federal SSI expenditures are projected to grow more slowly than GDP both because the share of the population that will be potentially eligible for SSI will decline and because the maximum federal SSI benefit is projected to grow more slowly on average than the growth in average income in the future.