SSI's $2,000 asset limit has been frozen since 1989, trapping 7.4 million disabled and elderly recipients in enforced poverty

Supplemental Security Income recipients cannot hold more than $2,000 in countable assets ($3,000 for couples) -- a limit unchanged since 1989 despite 35 years of inflation. If these limits had been indexed to inflation since the program's 1972 enactment, they would be approximately $10,000 for individuals and $15,000 for couples today. Why it matters: SSI recipients cannot save for emergencies, car repairs, or security deposits, so any unexpected expense pushes them into debt or homelessness, so they remain permanently dependent on government programs for basic survival, so they cannot build the financial stability needed to attempt returning to work, so the program designed as a safety net instead functions as a poverty trap that increases long-term government costs. The structural root cause is that unlike Social Security's COLA adjustments, Congress never indexed SSI asset limits to inflation, and updating them requires affirmative legislation that has stalled repeatedly despite bipartisan support for bills like the SSI Savings Penalty Elimination Act.