7,500 Tennesseans with disabilities face benefit loss, reduction under Trump administration proposal

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The Trump administration has signalled it intends to make changes to the nation’s disability program that could cut or end benefits to 375,000 disabled individuals across the nation, including 7,500 in Tennessee, a newly published analysis found. 

Supplemental Security Income, the nation’s monthly cash assistance program for low-income and elderly people with disabilities, currently takes into account the financial role an individual’s parent, spouse or other household member plays in determining whether someone qualifies for the benefit and how much they receive. 

Benefits can be reduced by up to one-third, or about $300, if an individual with disabilities gets “in-kind” help from household members, such as living rent-free with a parent or spouse.

Until now, however, the federal government has made an exception for households that receive public assistance, under the assumption that families poor enough to receive food or other public assistance are not able to also help support a disabled family member. 

The administration’s proposed new rule, submitted July 18, would no longer consider Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program or SNAP, commonly referred to as food stamps, as a form of public assistance that meets the exception. 

The change would mean that the Social Security Administration would begin to count “in-kind” contributions, such as living rent-free, against  people with disabilities living with family who also receive SNAP and reduce or end disability payments.

The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, relying on SNAP and Social Security data, estimates that the rule, if adopted, would end disability benefits entirely for 100,000 people nationwide and slash payments to another 275,000. In Tennessee, 7,500 people with disabilities could lose or see reductions in benefits.