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Contact Information

For general questions about the report, please call Alfreda Brooks at 410-965-9849 or e-mail ssi.asr@ssa.gov. Specific questions about the data may be directed to the contact person listed on each table. That contact information is current as of the release date. For additional copies of this report, please call 202-358-6274 or e-mail op.publications@ssa.gov.

Accessibility and Usability Information

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Highlights 2001

Size and Scope of the Program

• About 6.7 million persons received federally administered payments in December 2001.
• The average monthly payment in December 2001 was $394.
• Total payments for the year were more than $32 billion, including about $3 billion in state supplementation.

Profile of Recipients

• Most SSI recipients (80 percent) were eligible on the basis of a disability.
• Roughly 6 out of 10 had a disagnosis of mental retardation or another mental disorder.
• Most (55 percent) had no income other than their SSI payment.
• For those who did have other income, the most common source was Social Security benefits (36 percent).
• About 27 percent lived alone.

Recipients Who Work

• Despite their disabilities, about 346,000 recipients (5 percent) were working in December 2001.
• Among recipients who work, one in three was able to take advantage of the work incentive provisions applicable to SSI.

Preface

Since 1974, the Supplemental Security Income (SSI) program has guaranteed a minimum level of income for needy aged, blind, or disabled individuals. Each year, we issue a report that presents data on the SSI program and the people who receive benefits from it. The report covers such topics as federal benefit rates and total annual payments, federally administered payments, state-administered supplementation, work incentives, applications, awards, denials, and suspension of benefits.

This edition includes several new features to provide more of a framework for the data. A background section describes the history and provisions of SSI, and a glossary defines terms related to the program. Two new tables (Tables 14 and 15) are the first to show unduplicated counts of persons receiving benefits from both the Social Security and SSI disability programs.

To provide a clearer picture of who SSI recipients are, we have also added a new section (Tables 32 to 38) that draws on information from the Survey of Income and Program Participation. Those tables present data on SSI households, including the recipients' relationships to other household members, and on recipients' other sources of income, SSI as a percentage of personal income, and the role SSI plays in reducing the poverty gap.

Alfreda M. Brooks compiled the data and prepared the report for publication. Celine Houget edited the report, and Laurie Brown prepared the Web versions.

This report is available on our Web site at www.ssa.gov/policy. Four other publications on the SSI program are also available. They are State Assistance Programs for SSI Recipients, Children Receiving SSI, SSI Disabled Recipients Who Work, and SSI Recipients by State and County.

Notes

Unless otherwise specified--

• All payments are federally administered payments.
• All years are calendar years.

In July 2001, SSA made retroactive lump-sum payments to correct an error in the cost-of-living adjustment for 2000 and 2001. The data in this report reflect the federal benefit rate actually used for SSI payments ($512 for 2000, $530 for January through June 2001).

Numbers in the text and tables of this report may not add to totals because of rounding.

Table of Contents

The following files are available for this document in the given formats:

• SSI recipients, by eligibility category and age
• Number of SSI recipients, by age
• Number of SSI applications received, by age
• Number of SSI awards, by age
• SSI blind and disabled recipients under age 65, by diagnosis

To access individual tables, please used our expanded table of contents.

Other Editions of this Publication

Next Expected Update

August 2005

Other Editions

• SSI Annual Statistical Report, 2003 (released September 2004)
• SSI Annual Statistical Report, 2002 (released August 2003)
• SSI Annual Statistical Report, 2001 (released June 2002)
• SSI Annual Statistical Report, 2000 (released May 2001)
• SSI Annual Statistical Report, 1999 (released June 2000)