SSI recipients in multirecipient households, March 1994.

This note addresses concerns about the amounts of Supplemental Security Income (SSI) payments made to households where two or more recipients live together. Under current law these payments are not generally reduced. One of the concerns is that the SSI program may be providing income to households whose income exceeds an equitable standard, defined in terms of the poverty guidelines.’ This study measures the incidence of this happening by comparing unit incomes to the 1994 poverty guidelines. In March 1994, few SSI recipients were living in households with other recipients. Just over 500,000 recipients (not including eligible couples) out of the more than 6,000,OOO total SSI recipients lived in the same household with others also receiving SSI (8.5 percent). Another 400,000 persons were living in 2-recipient households as SSI couples. Their payments were subject to a limitation of 1.5 times the amount paid to an individual. The households in which SSI recipients lived together generally were not large. Less than 4 percent of the persons in multirecipient households lived with more than three other recipients. The most common type of household group was composed of disabled adults. When only SSI payments are considered, 50 percent of the multirecipient units were below the poverty guideline, and almost all the rest were between 100 and 150 percent of poverty. When a proxy for “countable” income is added to the SSI payment, 94 percent of all the multirecipient units were at or