Bank CEOs show support for SSI reform bill

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Current SSI asset limits ‘lock people in poverty’

Current SSI asset limits are extremely low — $2,000 for individuals and $3,000 per couple. Those thresholds apply to all kinds of assets, including cash, bank accounts, investments and household goods. Beneficiaries who go over the limits are suspended or terminated.

“The problem is SSI’s eligibility rules haven’t been updated by Congress — that’s on us — in 40 years,” Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, said during Wednesday’s Senate Banking Committee hearing with leaders of Wall Street firms.

“They are now so outdated they lock people in poverty,” Brown said.

Experts from the Bipartisan Policy Center, Center on Budget and Policy Priorities and Century Foundation have called the program’s rules the “most regressive, anti-saving provisions in federal law.”

Other Wall Street executives show support

JPMorgan Chase Chairman and CEO Jamie Dimon speaks next to Bank of America Chairman and CEO Brian Thomas Moynihan and Citigroup CEO Jane Fraser during the U.S. Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee oversight hearing on Wall Street firms, on Capitol Hill in Washington, U.S., December 6, 2023.

Evelyn Hockstein | Reuters

Big bank CEOs testify in Senate hearing

It will take Congress’ vote to push the changes through, however.

Senate lawmakers who support the bill have vowed to attach it to any piece of moving legislation, Rebecca Vallas, a distinguished fellow at the National Academy of Social Insurance, noted during a November presentation of the nonprofit organization’s recent task force report.

“This is something that needs to happen, not just to support workers, but also to remove barriers to economic growth,” Vallas said.

Moreover, “huge numbers of employees” cannot participate in a 401(k) plan or cannot take raises because of SSI’s current asset limits, she said.

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