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Article: Supplemental Security Income
- Article from:
- Encyclopedia of Aging
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2002 The Gale Group Inc. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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SUPPLEMENTAL SECURITY INCOME
The Supplemental Security Income program (SSI) was established, in 1974, to provide assistance to poor aged, blind, and disabled people
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including children. This entry describes why SSI was created, how the program works, and why it matters to millions of Americans.
SSI is a federal program, funded through the general revenues and supplemented by the states, that provides cash assistance to needy people
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an eighty-year-old widow living alone and having no other income than her $125 Social Security benefit and her SSI check; a thirty-five-year-old man with a mental disability, unable to participate in the paid labor force and having no income ...