Statement for the Record - House Ways and Means Social Security and Work & Welfare Subcommittees regarding SSI and SSDI

Statement for the Record
U.S. House of Representatives
Ways and Means Committee

Joint Social Security and Work & Welfare Subcommittee Hearing: Untapped Talent in America: Removing Barriers to Work and Supporting Opportunity for Individuals with Disabilities Hearing on September 9, 2025

Dear Chairman Estes, Representative Carey, Ranking Members Larson and Davis, and distinguished Members of the Subcommittee:

I am writing in my capacity as Vice Chair/Acting Chair of the National Council on Disability (NCD), an independent, bipartisan federal agency that advises Congress, the President, and fellow federal agencies on matters affecting the lives of people with disabilities. NCD provides advice based on our comprehensive and objective analyses to inform policy development, improvement, and enforcement efforts. As a federal voice for sixty-one million Americans with disabilities, including students with disabilities and their families, NCD is committed to advancing policy solutions that create a more inclusive society for people with disabilities.

Thank you for this opportunity to submit NCD’s Statement for the Record with recommendations on ways that policymakers can remove employment disincentives for recipients of Supplemental Security Income (SSI) and Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI). I would also like to express our agency’s support of your efforts to advance the SSI Savings Penalty Elimination Act (H.R. 2540/S.1234), a bipartisan bill that would end the penalization of people with disabilities who try to save money by increasing the asset limits to $10,000 for individuals and $20,000 for married couples, as well as your efforts to exclude the income and resources of SSI recipient’s spouses when making eligibility determinations - commonly referred to as the marriage penalty. Finally, NCD would add to the statement of witness Amy Wallish, who testified about the important role of benefits counselors in helping people with disabilities understand how employment impacts their government benefits, by suggesting that benefits counselors for people with disabilities should also educate eligible employees about the financial benefits of participating in the Internal Revenue Service’s (IRS) antipoverty programs, like the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC), to maximize their tax refunds and overall income without jeopardizing their government benefits to encourage people with disabilities to seek employment opportunities.

More than 10 million people qualify for Medicaid based on disability.[^1] SSI income thresholds for individuals with disabilities, who are also working, vary by state, ranging from $35,105 in Georgia to $85,727 in Alaska in 2023.[^2] In tandem, asset and resource limits impose a marriage penalty, where (1) spouse’s income and assets count against eligibility thresholds;[^3] and regardless of medical costs, medical debt, and the extra cost of living with disability; and (2) the SSI asset limit is $3,000 for married couples or two-parent families with children, as opposed to $4,000 for 2 individuals.[^4]

Across SSI beneficiaries, 74 percent of unemployed, non-retiree households have less than $3,000 in financial assets.[^5] Disability, unemployment risk, job loss or lack of jobs, and labor force shocks, including changes in demand and value of certain skills, may leave households economically insecure. Many individuals with disabilities who need assistance with personal care and daily activities must spend down their financial assets to qualify for public benefits programs such as Medicaid long-term services and supports (LTSS).[^6] This is because LTSS offered through Medicaid, such as personal care assistants, are not covered by private insurance plans. Without such services, their ability to work is impeded or prevented.

NCD’s 2023 Progress Report, Toward Economic Security: The Impact of Income and Asset Limits on People with Disabilities,[^7] examined four critical areas of public policy and their impact on people with disabilities: health care, cash benefits provided through Supplemental Security Income (SSI), employment, and asset building and wealth protection. In the report, NCD urged Congress to pass the SSI Savings Penalty Elimination Act (S. 2767 / H.R. 5408), highlighted the following concern:

This legislation would allow people with disabilities to improve their financial lives by increasing asset limits from $2,000 to $10,000 for individuals and from $3,000 to $20,000 for couples. Despite the promises of S. 2767 / H.R. 5408, challenges remain regarding how resource limits are assessed for SSI. The current $2,000 and $3,000 thresholds apply to gross assets, not net wealth. This means that individuals who have an excess of debt to assets still cannot qualify for SSI.

For this reason, NCD recommended that:

• Congress re-examine Supplemental Security Income asset and resource rules to allow debts like medical debt and disability-related debts to counterbalance countable resources in determining program eligibility;
• Policymakers should reduce the reporting burden for applicants and beneficiaries, and update overpayment waiver rules so they are less punitive and easier to navigate; and
• Implement the No Wrong Door (NWD) program nationwide to facilitate the integration of social safety net program application and navigation processes.[^8]

During our investigation, NCD conducted several listening sessions, and the story of a particular couple, both of whom have a disability, highlighted an unfortunate reality that is shared by too many people with disabilities. The couple fell in love and wanted to marry, but it became clear to them that the marriage penalty would adversely affect their benefits and their ability to live and earn. Consequently, they were advised that it would be better for them if they did not marry. This story is like others discussed during the September 9, 2025, hearing on how people with disabilities are impacted by the marriage penalty directly and represents a reason Social Security reform is needed.

Finally, our agency’s 2025 report, Tax Misclassification: Lost Employment Benefits for Disabled Workers,[^9] found pervasive “tax hesitancy” experienced by people with disabilities who want to work or are currently working, leaving them misinformed or unaware that federal law excludes tax refunds as income and as a resource for twelve months.[^10] The Social Security Administration implemented a corresponding policy in its Program Operations Manual System (POMS).[^11] NCD found that people with disabilities may be underutilizing the IRS’s antipoverty programs that provide direct cash payments to low-income workers which could maximize their income potential without jeopardizing their eligibility for benefits due to this misunderstanding about tax refunds.

IRS implements federal antipoverty programs like the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC), a refundable tax credit intended to reduce work disincentives by providing financial assistance to qualifying low-income workers and relief to low-income families.[^12] The Department of Treasury stated that the purpose of the credit is to help lift families above the poverty line and encourage people to work.[^13]

According to tax year 2022 data from the IRS, the most recent year for which tax data was available at the time of our investigation, approximately 23 million workers and families received $57 billion in EITC payments, with an average amount nationwide of $2,541.[^14] For 2025, the EITC tax credit will range from $649 (families with no qualifying children) to $8,046 (families with three or more qualifying children).[^15] Benefits counselors play an important role, as described in Ms. Wallish’s testimony, to inform working taxpayers about the IRS’s antipoverty programs in order to maximize their income while maintaining eligibility for government benefits.

Once again, I thank you for the opportunity to provide NCD’s research, analysis, and recommendations on ways to remove employment barriers for people with disabilities that receive SSI or SSDI who want to work and pursue career advancement. If NCD can assist you in any way, please do not hesitate to contact our Executive Director, Ana Torres-Davis, atorresdavis@ncd.gov, and Director of Legislative Affairs and Outreach, Anne Sommers McIntosh, amcintosh@ncd.gov, who will coordinate a response.

Respectfully,

David Shawn Kennemer
Vice Chair/Acting Chair

-—–

[^1] Medicaid and CHIP Payment and Access Commission, People with Disabilities, 2022, https://www.macpac.gov/subtopic/people-with-disabilities/.

[^2] U.S. Social Security Administration, Program Operations Manual System. SI 02302.200 Chartered Threshold Amounts, December 14, 2021, available at: https://secure.ssa.gov/poms.nsf/lnx/0502302200. Notes: The 2023 threshold amounts were calculated using 2019 average per capita Medicaid expenses by State, as 2020 data was unavailable.

[^3] What is the Medicaid marriage penalty?, American Council on Aging (February 17, 2023) available at: https://www.medicaidplanningassistance.org/question/what-is-the-medicaid-marriage-penalty/#:~:text=What%20is%20the%20Medicaid%20marriage%20penalty%3F,-2%20Answers&text=The%20Medicaid%20marriage%20penalty%20is,a%20result%20of%20getti.

[^4] Kathleen Romig and Sam Washington, Policymakers Should Expand and Simplify Supplemental Security Income, Center on Budget and Policy Priorities (May 4, 2022) available at: https://www.cbpp.org/research/social-security/policymakers-should-expand-and-simplify-supplemental-security-income.

[^5] Felix Wellschmied, The welfare effects of asset mean-testing income support, Quantitative Economics, 12(1), pp.217-249 (January 2021) available at: https://www.econometricsociety.org/publications/quantitative-economics/2021/01/01/The-welfare-effects-of-asset-meantesting-income-support.

[^6] How Medicaid Spend Down Works: Rules, Exemptions and Strategies, American Council on Aging, last updated (December 14, 2022) available at: https://www.medicaidplanningassistance.org/medicaid-spend-down/.

[^7] National Council on Disability (October 31, 2023) Toward Economic Security: The Impact of Income and Asset Limits on People with Disabilities, available at: National Council on Disability

2023 Progress Report: Toward Economic Security: The Impact of Income and Asset Limits on People with Disabilities.

[^8] Toward Economic Security: The Impact of Income and Assets Limitations on People with Disabilities

[^9] National Council on Disability (March 6, 2025) Tax Misclassification: Lost Employment Benefits for Disabled Workers, available at: National Council on Disability

Tax Misclassification: Lost Employment Benefits for Disabled Workers.

[^10] 26 USCS § 640 (Notwithstanding any other provision of law, any refund (or advance payment with respect to a refundable credit) made to any individual under this title shall not be taken into account as income, and shall not be taken into account as resources for a period of 12 months from receipt, for purposes of determining the eligibility of such individual (or any other individual) for benefits or assistance (or the amount or extent of benefits or assistance) under any Federal program or under any State or local program financed in whole or in part with Federal funds.)

[^11] Social Security Administration, SI 01130.676 Federal Tax Refunds and Advance Tax Credits for SSI Resources, (December 7, 2023) available at: https://secure.ssa.gov/poms.nsf/lnx/0501130676.

[^12] See Sorenson v. Sec’y of the Treasury of the United States, 475 U.S. 851, 864, 106 S. Ct. 1600, 89 L. Ed. 2d 855 (1986) (citing the legislative record); In re James, 406 F.3d 1340, 1344 (11th Cir. 2005) (quoting Sorenson, 475 U.S. at 864). Department of the Treasury, Internal Revenue Service, Publication 596 Earned Income Credit (EIC) For use in preparing 2023 Returns, available at: https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/p596.pdf (last accessed November 26, 2024).

[^13] Internal Revenue Service, Statistics for Tax Returns with the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) available at: Earned Income Tax Credit statistics

Internal Revenue Service.

[^14] Id.

[^15] Id.