Assistance program
Supplemental Security Income
$504.9 Billion committed in FY2018–FY2026
- Agency
- Social Security Administration, Social Security Administration
- Assistance
- Direct Payments for Specified Use;Direct Payments With Unrestricted Use
- CFDA number
- 96.006
- What it does
- To ensure a minimum level of income to persons who have attained age 65 or are blind or disabled, and whose income and resources are below specified levels. SEC 1601- SSI was created for the purpose of establishing a national program to provide supplemental security income to individuals who attained age 65 or are blind, or disabled.
- Who benefits
- Individuals who have attained age 65 or are blind or disabled, who continue to meet the income and resources tests, citizenship/qualified alien status, U.S. residence, and certain other requirements. Eligibility may continue for beneficiaries who engage in substantial gainful activity despite disabling physical or mental impairments.
- Who applies
- • Individuals age 65 or older, or • Individuals of any age who are blind or have a disability and have limited income and resources.
- Authorized by
- Social Security Act of 1935, Title XVI, as amended; 42 U.S.C. 1381-1383f.
- Program site
- http://www.socialsecurity.gov ↗
Committed by fiscal year
* FY2026 is year-to-date — the fiscal year is still in progress, so its total is still filling in. The striped band and dashed line mark that provisional stretch.
Recipients
This program's money is paid out as non-itemized direct payments — USAspending records it under a single aggregate, so individual recipients aren't listed. The dollars and agencies above are complete; the recipient roster isn't part of the public record for programs like this.
How to read these numbers
- Committed through this program
Money committed under this assistance listing (its CFDA program), counted in the year each action happened.
- How it's paid
Most programs pay out one way — a grant, or a direct payment to individuals; the flow bar only appears when a program genuinely mixes types.
- Some recipients aren't itemized
For entitlement programs like Social Security and Medicare, the government reports one aggregate instead of naming tens of millions of people, so the recipient roster isn't part of the public record.
- Awards, counted once
An award count is the number of distinct awards with at least one action that year — each counted once, however many times it was amended.
- The colored bars
Every bar on this page splits by how the money moves:
Direct payments